Kerala farmer leader builds 30,000-farmer campaign to save 1,000 rice varieties
A Kerala agriculture officer embraced agroecology after reading a Japanese book, later organizing a broad movement with Thanal to revive traditional rice varieties across six states. The effort grew from local conservation to a regional campaign linked to broader concerns about chemical farming and
Key takeaways
- An individual from Kerala connected agroecology to a broader movement protecting traditional rice varieties across six states.
- The movement grew to involve about 30,000 farmers and Thanal, linking seed preservation with cultural memory and environmental health.
- Endosulfan, sprayed in Kasaragod from 1978 to 2000, became a focal point in a broader narrative about pesticide exposure and regulatory action.
What Happened
In the early 1980s, a Kerala agriculture officer from Palakkad, inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka’s One-Straw Revolution, began farming without chemicals and framed agriculture around underlying philosophies rather than mere production. This shift spurred the creation of a movement aimed at conserving India’s folk rice varieties. The effort grew into a collaboration with Thanal, a Kerala-based environmental collective led by Usha Soolapani and her associate Jayakumar, expanding its reach to six Indian states and involving about 30,000 farmers. The movement centered on reviving paddy traditions and safeguarding ancestral seeds, often stored in clay pots or tucked away in homes, during seed festivals where elders recounted stories of varieties nearing disappearance.
The broader context included deteriorating Kerala paddy ecosystems as costs rose and grain prices stagnated, while wetlands faced real estate pressures and fields changed hands. Usha and Thanal linked farming practices to public health and environmental health, noting a connection between chemical-intensive agriculture and community impacts. A pivotal campaign opposed Endosulfan, a pesticide sprayed on cashew plantations in Kasaragod district between 1978 and 2000. The pesticide’s effects were cited as contributing to birth defects and health problems, culminating in Kerala banning Endosulfan and a Supreme Court directive in January 2017 to disburse 500 crore rupees in compensation to over 5,000 victims. The issue drew international attention when the Stockholm Convention listed technical Endosulfan as a persistent organic pollutant in 2011.
From 2005 to 2018, Usha and colleagues traveled across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, and Chhattisgarh to locate farmers who preserved ancestral seeds, gathering stories and strategies that reinforced a regional conservation movement. The initiative evolved from a campaign into a regional movement, with SOR—Save Our Rice Campaign—launched by PAN Asia Pacific in 2003 to combat threats to Asia’s rice heritage.
Sources reviewed
Project Chintan independently synthesized and analyzed information cross-checked across the sources listed above.
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