Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP), situated in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, India, is home to huge diversity of fauna and flora. Having rich bio-cultural traditions the farmer communities residing in buffer zone of GHNP...
moreGreat Himalayan National Park (GHNP), situated in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh, India, is home to huge diversity of fauna and flora. Having rich bio-cultural traditions the farmer communities residing in buffer zone of GHNP Conservation Area (GHNPCA) have developed multitude of indigenous on-farm techniques (the methods by which inputs are powered) and technologies (the application of knowledge to the production system) for optimal production. Appreciable diversity of agriculture has been maintained through a variety of crop compositions, cropping patterns and crop rotations. Grassroots Institute undertook the mapping and documentation of in situ agrobiodiversity in 2007-10, followed by promotion of on-farm conservation and organic farming practices. Farmers practice polyculture by growing multiple traditional cultivars of millets, pulses, beans, barley, pea, buckwheat, horse gram, maize, wheat, potato and soybean. About 45 traditional cultivars of 15 different crops are being cultivated by the mountain farmers in 2 gram panchayats covering 20 villages in Tirthan Valley of GHNPCA. Results of the study revealed that these traditional cultivars are far superior in characteristics than their counterpart modern or hybrid varieties. However, the old agronomic practices and poor market rates have ever discouraged the farmers to continue growing the traditional cultivars of these crops, and the farmers were forced to adopt hybrid seeds and monoculture. Abundance and sown area of various cultivars also decreased over past three decades. Grassroots Institute addressed the twofold challenge: one, preservation and re-introduction of traditional cultivars in situ coupled with improvement in agronomic methods of farmers for enhancing the yield; and two, linking the organic produce of the traditional crops with innovative post-harvest techniques and better market opportunities. Challenge ahead lies in engaging large number of farmers in cultivation of genetically-superior traditional cultivars, and in value addition, processing and marketing of organic produce of these crops, so that the livelihood of marginal and poor farmers, which is relatively based on bioresources of national park, can be diversified/diverted and the overall goal of biodiversity conservation is fully achieved.