NASHIK: Coming from a remote tribal village in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district, Rahibai Soma Popere never went to school. Today, the 56-year-old gives ‘healthy-farming’ lessons and has a seed farm that conserves native crops.
The Padma Shri award conferred on her on Saturday is a recognition of her work of 20 years to promote use of native seeds and returning to traditional farming techniques that have withstood time.
She firmly believes that selection and saving good seeds can lead to sustainable agriculture and global food security.
Her work in the field of conservation of local varieties of foodgrains, vegetables and ‘organic’ farming germinated through her grandson’s illness. She believed that his cure lay in food that was free from chemicals - fertilizers and pesticides. She prevailed upon her family to return to native seeds.
Now, Popere has a seed bank on a patch of land near her house with several varieties of native seeds and around 50 crops. She has also formed the Kalsubai Parisar Biyanee Savardhan Samiti, a collective of women farmers, which plays an important role in encouraging farmers to use native seeds.
Popere now spends most of her time training farmers from across the state in using traditional farming and irrigation techniques. She now has a vast bank of seeds of different landraces, or traditional, locally adapted species of plants or crops. Popere started with a nursery of 4,000 seedlings of blackberry and distributed them among members of a self-help group. Over the years, she has been able to conserve nearly 43 landraces of 17 different crops.
She tied up with Maharashtra Institute for Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (MITTRA) to learn establish nursery and organic farming. Popere shot to fame when BBC picked her in the ‘100 Women 2018’ list of inspiring and influential women around the world
The Padma Shri award conferred on her on Saturday is a recognition of her work of 20 years to promote use of native seeds and returning to traditional farming techniques that have withstood time.
She firmly believes that selection and saving good seeds can lead to sustainable agriculture and global food security.
Her work in the field of conservation of local varieties of foodgrains, vegetables and ‘organic’ farming germinated through her grandson’s illness. She believed that his cure lay in food that was free from chemicals - fertilizers and pesticides. She prevailed upon her family to return to native seeds.
Now, Popere has a seed bank on a patch of land near her house with several varieties of native seeds and around 50 crops. She has also formed the Kalsubai Parisar Biyanee Savardhan Samiti, a collective of women farmers, which plays an important role in encouraging farmers to use native seeds.
Popere now spends most of her time training farmers from across the state in using traditional farming and irrigation techniques. She now has a vast bank of seeds of different landraces, or traditional, locally adapted species of plants or crops. Popere started with a nursery of 4,000 seedlings of blackberry and distributed them among members of a self-help group. Over the years, she has been able to conserve nearly 43 landraces of 17 different crops.
She tied up with Maharashtra Institute for Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (MITTRA) to learn establish nursery and organic farming. Popere shot to fame when BBC picked her in the ‘100 Women 2018’ list of inspiring and influential women around the world