PahadiDirect is supported by Gene Campaign which is a non profit that started in 1993 to fight for the protection of India’s genetic resources ( hence the name, the campaign to conserve our genetic resources). As a research and advocacy organization Gene Campaign has worked in 17 states to raise awareness about seed sovereignty , food and nutrition security & make India’s laws & policies more pro-women, pro-poor & pro-nature.
Gene Campaign (GC for short) works with rural and tribal communities, specifically on agriculture, food, nutrition and livelihoods, particularly of women farmers. Realizing that agriculture is a distressed sector, we have put our efforts into making agriculture more profitable with the hope that it will make farmers more prosperous.
Here’s a brief overview of Gene Campaign’s work
Improving Food Security & Household Nutrition– Working primarily with women farmers, GC works to make agriculture climate resilient and more productive. It invests in research to increase yields using traditional resources and modern science.
We are reviving millets as climate resilient and highly nutritious crops and promoting them for the family’s consumption. To further improve household nutrition, we establish well-planned homestead level ‘nutrition gardens’ to provide fresh vegetables year round, providing essential micronutrients.
Women and adolescent girls receive training in balancing nutrition in diets and sourcing affordable nutrition from traditional food plants.
Field and Policy Research– GC has a substantial body of work in field & policy research, documentation and implementation. It led the national campaign against patenting seeds and protecting the genetic wealth of India. GC has worked to ensure India’s unique Farmers’ Rights legislation, making India the only country in the world that gives legal rights to its farmers.
In recognition of its significant intellectual contributions to framing policy and effective community work, GC has been a member of nearly 60 national policy bodies on agriculture and food, biodiversity and conservation, biotechnology, IPR and international trade, education and development.
Conserving agrobiodiversity & Indigenous Knowledge (IK) for sustainable growth– For its pioneering work on the conservation and characterization of crop genetic diversity, Gene Campaign received the National Conservation Award in 2009. Its work on rice genetic diversity led to the discovery of two new disease resistant genes; It is collecting the genetic diversity of Himalayan crops and conserving it in a village level Gene-Seed bank in Uttarakhand.
GC has made significant contributions to India’s IPR policies. It challenged the US patents on Basmati rice and Haldi; it has documented the community knowledge related to food and healing in the tribes of Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and the North East and it advocates for a national law to protect IK in the interest of communities.
Raising incomes of women farmers in Shakti Sthal Uttarakhand
Gene Campaign is promoting millets a traditional crop in mountain areas like Uttarakhand, cultivated specifically by women, now getting displaced due to market forces.
Reviving and processing climate resilient millet crops would fulfill three important functions :
- Stabilize local food production in the face of climate turbulence. Millets are climate resilient crops able to grow in poor soils with little water thus providing food even during poor monsoons. Even small farmers with marginal lands cultivating millets, can have reasonable harvests and be food secure when faced with climate change
- Alleviate malnutrition. Millets and other traditional grains are nutrition dense foods, rich in micronutrients, dietary fibre and protein and can thus address the rampant malnutrition problem in Uttarakhand and other parts of India.
- Generate income on the farm. For income generation, GC is taking advantage of the current consumer interest in high nutrition “Super Foods” based on traditional grains. The health conscious urban consumer willing to experiment with different traditional foods like quinoa and chia, gives us an opportunity to revive the nutritious traditional grains of the Himalayan region, like millets, buckwheat and amaranth to produce a range of high value ‘super foods’ for urban markets. This provides an avenue to generate cash incomes for farmers and improve their financial position.
Gene Campaign works directly with women farmers. It has organized the women farmers of over 80 villages in Nainital district bordering Mukteshwar, into Mahila Kissan Samitis (MKS). The women are being trained to produce millet based value added products, jams, juices and squashes made from peach, plum, apricot, malta and pickles from mountain lemons, nettle, ferns, air potatoes and wild figs.
We will be offering these products at our E Shop on PahadiDirect.
Dr Suman Sahai