In regions where plant genetic diversity is high, farmers’ fields are important for conserving plant genetic resources (PGR). Poor women farmers play an essential role in this conservation. Recognising this role is vital for the sustainable management of agrobiodiversity.

Conserving and maintaining stocks of plant genetic diversity is increasingly vital for future agricultural production. Research from Humboldt University, Germany, examines the institutional structures governing PGR in Kerala, south India. The research focuses on institutions that have taken innovative steps to support the interests of women in biodiversity management. The research aims to determine what institutions are needed to coordinate agrobiodiversity conservation with agricultural activity.

The Wayanad district is one of the richest areas of biodiversity in India. However, there are many conflicts over environmental issues and land use patterns. Banana and arecanut plantations threaten cultivation of rice landraces (ancient types of crop plants whose genetic diversity helps them adapt to their growing environment). Officially, the state has banned the conversion of rice lands to other uses but agricultural labourers, with strong unions, argue for the continuation of this activity. The unorganised group of small farmers who cultivate low-productive rice cannot come together as an interest group because of the part-time nature of their occupation.

Beyond rice fields, conservation efforts focus on many different kinds of biodiversity and agricultural systems. These include:

• wild food gathered in forests
• cultivated and wild medicinal herbs
• PGRs on integrated organic farms.

Each system has its own property rights and relative governance structures, and the role of women within each varies. The Kattunaikki tribal people live in small groups in the forest, collecting and processing plants for sale as food and medicine. Their specialised knowledge, shared between men and women, helps maintain and utilise the bio-diverse forest. New environmental policies changed property rights and Kattunaikka people lost their customary access rights.

Home garden farming in almost all homes has evolved over hundreds of years, and women’s home gardens are significant for biodiversity conservation. A non-governmental organisation in Wayanad works with women’s self-help groups to promote the sustainable use of medicinal plants and to revitalise traditional primary health care. Successful collective action has increased local group knowledge, but there are barriers, such as quality management and market access, to increasing the scale of the initiative and entering formal markets for medicinal plants.

Organic farming as an agricultural strategy has gained momentum in Kerala. Collective action is built on the exchange of species and varieties as a way to improve cultivation practices and establishing formal organic markets. Women are active in this movement, working to conserve biodiversity-rich agriculture.

Conservation for its own sake is an uncommon concept in Kerala. Agrobiodiversity conservation often occurs as a side-product of farming systems. However, each production system contains mechanisms for agrobiodiversity conservation. To maintain this, the research recommends:

• Rules for implementing the 2002 Biodiversity Act, currently being developed, must take care in their use of terms. Legal definitions of ‘farmer’ and ‘community’ have an impact on tribal and gender equity in agrobiodiversity conservation.
• Social differences exist between communities: any efforts to coordinate and regulate the conservation of agrobiodiversity must recognise this.

Source(s):
‘Institutional innovations towards gender equity in agrobiodiversity management: collective action in Kerala, south India’ IFPRI CAPRi Working Paper No. 39, by Martina Aruna Padmanabhan, June 2005 Full document.

Funded by: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and the Indian National Science Academy

id21 Research Highlight: 9 February 2006

Further Information:
Martina Aruna Padmanabhan
Department of Agricultural Economics and Social Sciences
Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture
Humboldt University
Luisenstra #946
D-10099 Berlin
Germany

Tel: +49 30 209 3056
Fax: +49 30 209 36497
Contact the contributor: Martina.padmanabhan@agrar.hu-berlin.de

Humboldt University, Germany

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