Kathmandu. Earlier, every house in Nepal was like a seed bank. In every house, there was a seed bhakari, and it was customary to place seeds on the wall. Some in stone, some in torn tolo (cloth). It was customary to pick seeds from sapre items, and when the time came, he also planted them and gave them to their neighbors.
Even the seeds were sown. It’s not just a seed, it’s a society. That is not the case nowadays,” says Tilak Dhakal, president of Indigenous Agri Products. However, until a few decades ago, most farmers preserved the seeds they needed in a traditional way, protecting the organic farming system from it.
In recent years, traditional seed conservation practices have been in jeopardy due to climate change, increasing use of modern crops and market-oriented agricultural systems. This may be the reason why many agricultural genetic resources in Nepal are in crisis.
“The problem is because we are abandoning our crops in the name of improved varieties rather than losing them. Indigenous crops and resources have known Nepali soil, geography (Rizan) and climate (season) for generations. They have the potential to grow seeds for generations. We were shocked to grow a lot and not grow, and the government could not protect the indigenous resources in the name of agricultural modernization,” dhakal said. If there is no seed, the problem is going to get worse. Therefore, the multi-cropping system in every home and society, the basic skills and knowledge associated with it should be preserved. ‘
For this, it is necessary to spread the message that indigenous crops and agricultural biodiversity resources can be protected, promoted and marketed and become rich through it, he said. Mathura Khanal, another conservation activist, also expressed concern over the threat of traditional indigenous genetic resources.
“Earlier, the crops that were well-yielded during baubaje’s time are not available now. In our lifetime, the crops of paddy, maize, wheat, fruits and vegetables in the fields are also disappearing,” he says. It also comes to microbes. Therefore, if the situation remains the same and the remaining endangered, rare and special properties are not taken to conserve agricultural genetic resources, then there will be a lot of problems. ‘
According to Khanal, Nepal is called the museum of living biological diversity in the world, but due to the climate crisis, many biodiversity here have suffered losses. Khanal, an environmentalist, said that most of Nepal’s indigenous resources in the last decade have been further troubled by human activities, the use of improved breeds and forests such as Ajeru.
“Our land is barren and farmers are migrating. This means that our traditional wisdom is in danger of disappearing. We are moving towards dependence on everything due to the disappearance of indigenous knowledge and labor practices. Let’s seriously review the direction in which this is taking us,” he says, “In such a situation, there is a need to work for the conservation and socialization of resources through the use of technologies such as gene banks.” The use of laboratories and the dissemination of traditional agricultural knowledge should be taken forward simultaneously. ‘
Human health, economic progress and food sovereignty are dependent on nature, but this nature is a complex problem today. Various studies have pointed out that 40 percent of the world’s people have been deprived of their prosperity due to the decline of the ecosystem.
Talking about Nepal, due to the serious crisis of agricultural biodiversity here, many people are being deprived of internal migration, displacement from the place and the transfer of serious economic, social and traditional knowledge.
According to the Agricultural Research Council (NARC), about 40 percent of the thousands of resources in Nepal have disappeared. Of the 24,300 species, 28 per cent or 6,618 species are said to have agro-genetic resources and about 100,000 land species.
According to experts, there are about 30,000 indigenous crops in Nepal. There are about 1,026 species of crops, 510 grass crops, 35 domestic animals, 236 fish, 250 aquatic agricultural animals, 17 aquatic plants, 3,500 insects and 800 microbes.
Nepal is considered to be the primary center of origin of 11 species and 29 species of food crops and six species and 12 species of horticulture crops. Similarly, there are 13 species of 10 species out of various wild relative plants.
Dr Mukunda Bhattarai, information officer at the National Agricultural Genetic Resource Centre (Gene Bank) of the Government of Nepal, said that the indigenous and local breeds of Nepal have disappeared up to 50 percent.
“Now, if the government, all concerned people do not become serious and the local breeds are randomly displaced by modern advanced varieties, then the next decade will be a challenge in preserving agricultural biodiversity by luring wild relatives of about 25 percent of the crops,” he said. For this, existing diversities must be protected and accessible to researchers, breeders and farmers must be ensured. ‘
Seed bank
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aim to end hunger and eradicate all forms of malnutrition by ensuring safe, nutritious and adequate food for all people throughout the year by 2030. However, the situation so far is worrisome.
According to a Report by the World Food Organization (FAO), an estimated 713 to 757 million people (8.9 to 9.4 percent of the world’s population) faced hunger in 2023. If the median limit (733 million) is taken into account, more than 152 million people are starving compared to 2019.
More than 60 percent of nepal’s population is dependent on agriculture, but due to the decline in agricultural production, food items worth billions of rupees have to be exported every year. According to the 15th Five-Year Plan, 21 percent of nepal’s population does not have access to adequate food.
In such a situation, agricultural genetic resources have been severely damaged. As a result, experts warn that the entire world, including Nepal, will face a serious food crisis due to lack of suitable agro-biodiversity.
This is also confirmed by FAO data. According to the organization, in the last 20th century alone, the world’s crop diversity has decreased by about 75 percent. “As we face global population growth, climate change, land degradation, and global crises and conflicts, the diversity of these genetic resources is becoming essential to adapting to current and future challenges,” it said in its statement. ‘
For these various reasons, initiatives are currently being taken to conserve agro-genetic resources worldwide. For this, the Sustainable Development Goal No. 2 (5) had set a target to expand the DNA bank and community seed bank of various seeds, plants and endangered animals by 2020 by giving priority to the conservation of seeds, cultivated plants, farms and animal husbandry and their wild species.
The Government of Nepal is pursuing activities in accordance with this goal, the Convention on Biological Diversity, the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. The National Agricultural Genetic Resource Centre (Gene Bank) has been established as per the Agricultural Biodiversity Policy 2063 BS.
On the basis of this, the community seed bank program implementation guideline 2065 and the community seed bank establishment implementation procedure 2072 have been brought forward for its implementation.
Centre chief Dr Bal Krishna Joshi said the gene bank, established on October 27, 2009, has been carrying out research, research, collection and conservation works for the utilization and promotion of agro-genetic resources.
With the mission of preserving and utilizing all agro-genetic resources for food and nutrition security, standard of living and economic prosperity, the Bank evaluates the genetic resources, finds genetic markers of specific traits, selects advanced and suitable varieties through preprocession and provides them to breeders and farmers.
“Due to various reasons, there is a crisis in agricultural biodiversity one after the other. Our native resources and traditional agricultural resources are directly affected by climate change. Dr Sharma said, “The genetic resources protected in the gene bank are used for immediate and future use, direct use for sustainable development and breeding agricultural production, conservation of diversity in ecosystems, scientific testing and pre-crop breeding.” ‘
For this, there are gene banks at the center in Nepal, field gene banks, tissue technology laboratories and tissue banks, multicooler laboratories and DNA banks, and about 75 community seed banks in different parts of the country in collaboration with local farmers.
More than 20,000 agro-genetic resources of about 300 species of Nepal have been preserved in these banks. In addition, 25,297 indigenous genetic resources (including children and horticulture and microbes) have been preserved in international banks of 25 different countries of the world, said Centre Chief Dr Sharma.
The bank has long-term seed storage rooms with a capacity to hold 100,000 collections, medium-term storage units with a capacity of 50,000 to conserve seeds for 10-15 years, and short-term seasonal storage rooms in natural temperature and humidity. There is also a locker facility for organizations and individuals to keep their seeds free of cost.
Work to do now
According to Dr Sharma, head of the gene bank, when it comes to agricultural biodiversity, six categories should be taken into account : crops, livestock, grass crops, agro-insects, agro-microbes, aquaculture genetic resources.
Gene Bank is working on all these six segments as a good practice of 101. Dr Sharma said that now that the government has declared the decade of agriculture, those concerned should change the narrative that the indigenous agricultural resources are not enough to eat and give hope that there is a possibility in the resources that know our soil, geography and climate rather than imported ones.
“It also has agricultural and non-agricultural resources, so far adequate provisions have been made for non-agricultural resources including budget, fixed human resources, conservation areas, parks, etc. There is no budget, no education, no policy to encourage basic knowledge in agricultural resources,” he said. Farmers should have more customers, but farmers have the opposite way to become customers in many places. There is a situation to become millionaire by selling in the shop, but the farmers’ produce is not sold and become more unhappy, work should be done to improve it. ‘
For this, Dr. Sharma points out the need to do three things. First, the government should identify local and indigenous agricultural produce and make arrangements for the sale and purchase of such resources automatically without tax.
Secondly, formulate a policy to develop farmers’ homes as shops and implement the criteria for 60-70 percent indigenous resources in agricultural markets and increase investment for research, use and expansion of indigenous resources and emphasize on education.
Thirdly, establish at least three agricultural national parks in the country and run agricultural national pride projects for the promotion of indigenous agriculture.
Similarly, there are currently 75 community gene banks established in Nepal, out of which about 55 are active. This practice has been carried out by the farmers of the community in order to protect the local castes found in the villages and to provide easy access to the farmers.
They are contributing to the conservation and utilization of the genetic diversity of crops, grasslands, aquatic agricultural products, livestock, insects, microbes found in their area. Parbati Bhandari, chairperson of community seed bank association Nepal, said that there is a need to utilize local resources, skills and knowledge by making these banks more systematic.
He said that there has been a lot of awareness at the community level for the protection of the indigenous crops of Nepal, so it is necessary to spread the message that we can become self-reliant through this resource.
“We have faced a crisis on indigenous resources due to various reasons, but the government and stakeholders have developed the idea that we should not work to deal with this crisis,” he said. ‘
प्रतिक्रिया दिनुहोस्