Local seed for local need

Seated on a rug in front of a closed shop on the west side of Badamtala Bazar, 61-year-old Nomita Sarkar was sorting out various local seeds.

While she put some of them in bottles, the others were wrapped in paper or small polythene bags.

Failing to display all the 423 vegetable and fruit seed varieties, she stacked half of the seeds in a narrow spot beside her.

Nomita was setting up the stall for her peers, eagerly waiting for them to consider getting her seeds of small berries, custard apple, pumpkin, bottle gourd, okra, eggplant, radish, and spinach, alongside local paddy varieties Balam, Rani Salut, and Banshful.

She has been doing this for years at this annual seed fair, organised by farmers' associations and developmental organisation LoCos, for female farmers at Badamtala Bazar in Khulna's Batiaghata upazila.

The fair has been taking place at this place for the past 15 years.

In yesterday's edition, female farmers displayed, exchanged, and distributed over 400 varieties of seeds across 68 stalls.

Nomita, a resident of Sukdara, a coastal village in the upazila, won the first prize for seed preservation.

"Over 350 women like me are invested in this practice. So far, I preserved 423 seed varieties," she said, stressing the need to preserve local seeds resistant to salinity for better agricultural yield in the region.

Like Nomita, Karuna Mondal of the same village became self-reliant through this practice, preserving about 250 varieties of seeds. She secured the second position at the fair, while Lazmi Rani of Jharbhanga won the third prize for preserving 248 varieties.

According to fair coordinator Palash Kumar Das, this initiative serves as a beacon of hope for sustainable agriculture.

Batiaghata DAE Officer Abu Bokor Siddique said, "Seed preservation is a local tradition here. Besides, it also has an economic value as these varieties need fewer fertilisers and insecticides."

The women are preserving over 400 local crop varieties, which would gradually go extinct otherwise. Through this fair, they foster a network of preservers determined to safeguard their agricultural heritage, he added.