Fighting climate change one seed at a time

It is early morning in Sagar in central India’s Madhya Pradesh state. Birds are singing in the background as farmers sit with two Catholic nuns, not to talk about faith, but about seeds.

They discuss what types of seeds can be planted in what time of the year, what kind of fertilizers needed, and what is the expected yield.

The two nuns — Sister Pushpa and Sister Stella Maria from Diocese of Sagar — are ready with their buckets of seeds for distribution.

The meeting takes place inside a tent under a tree near a farmer’s club in the village. The farmers, and the nuns, sit on the ground. In the middle are the seeds.

Sister Pushpa (left) and Sister Stella Maria from Diocese of Sagar holding discussions with farmers on diversified seed cultivation. (Photo by Peerzada Ummer / LiCAS.news)

Sister Pushpa (left) and Sister Stella Maria from Diocese of Sagar holding discussions with farmers on diversified seed cultivation. (Photo by Peerzada Ummer / LiCAS.news)

It’s a different scene from two years ago when the rain started not to come on time and the farmers noticed a change in the weather pattern.

The late arrival of the monsoon rains wreaked havoc on their farmlands. The people were debt-ridden and found it hard to make both ends meet.

Seed Bank Meetiing between Church members and Farmers in Sagar area of Madhya Pradesh. (Video by Peerzada Ummer / LiCAS.news)

Climate Desperation

Farmer Sukh Ram, a 49-year-old father of three children, shares his ordeal.

He was expecting a good harvest in his five-acre land where he grew maize. He borrowed a loan of Rs 3 lac (about US$4,000) in 2018.

“It is a two-year-old tale,” he says. “I borrowed money for the construction of my house, expecting to repay in installments from the earnings of my farm.”

“But nature had something else in store for me,” he says.

The year 2020 proved to be treacherous for him and his neighbors.

The pandemic and the subsequent lockdown left things in doldrums. The late arrival of the monsoon season turned crops into dead twigs not even worthy of cattle fodder.

“I couldn’t earn anything that year,” he says. “Things were drastically plunging us into anxiety.”

Another farmer, Des Raj, was cultivating wheat when the drought hit the region.

“It was something I was not expecting in the wildest of my dreams,” he says. “I mean, I earned no profits from the land.”

“I worked hard and nothing positive came out of it. Imagine my mental agony,” Raj says.

Tens of varieties of seeds displayed in wooden bowls

The Church established more than 25 seed-banks with over 62 different varieties of seeds. These seeds were collected from scores of hamlets and stored in a seed bank. (Photo by Peerzada Ummer / LiCAS.news)

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Diversity and Sustainability

Crops and vegetation are adversely affected by changes in atmospheric temperature, humidity and water availability

A report from the Madhya Pradesh State Climate Change Knowledge Management Center, an independent research institute, notes that livestocks were also affected.

“The nutritive value of crops and vegetation grown under conditions of water stress is poor,” says the report, adding that climate change is expected to impact crop yields in the coming years.

“There would be some increase in crop productivity at high altitudes but a decrease at lower altitudes, and in tropical/subtropical areas the crop yields will fall by 10–20%,” the report says.

With threats of drought affecting the lives of people, the Diocese of Sagar came out with a “comprehensive strategy” to tackle the growing challenges of climate change.

Church members came up with a plan to establish a seed bank that will hold a large variety of seeds.

Pratiba, a Church member, shares that Indian agrarian communities used to have rich collections of traditional seed varieties. These started to dwindle with the coming of big agriculture corporations that brought “hybrid” and genetically modified seeds.

Pratiba says the need for seed conservation “becomes more vital.”

The local Church started to partner with farming communities and developed the Smallholder Adaptive Farming and Biodiversity Network that covers 1,366 households.

“The focus is on food security and climate-resilient farming systems,” says Pratiba. “Seed diversity and sustainable farming are our primary objectives.”

Des Raj and Sukh Ram, like the many other farmers in the area, started attending the farmers’ forum initiated by the Church, especially by the nuns, hoping to get out of the crisis.

“I attended the first meeting and we were told how diversification of crops could save us from the drought-like situation and prevalent water crises,” shares Des Raj.

The farmers were taught how to plant different varieties of crops so that if one fails due to the weather situation, “the other saves the farmer.”

Sister Pushpa says the objective of the program is “to save farmers” from the losses they had to incur due to drastic changes in the weather pattern.

The nun says the program is a blend of traditional knowledge and technical practices.

“We have established more than 25 seed-banks with over 62 different varieties of seeds. These seeds were collected from scores of hamlets in the region,” she tells LiCAS News.

Community-based seed banks were established in villages and farmer leaders were asked to attend specialized workshops to gain additional knowledge that they shared with the community.

Sukh Ram says that after attending the training sessions, he was able to cultivate more than six crops, and “four out of the six turned profitable.”

“Besides, I got training to make natural fertilizers,” he says, adding that it saved him money to repay his loan.

The seeds have been planted, and the farmers, and the nuns, are doing their best to take care of it.

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Aid to the Church in Need

Text by Peerzada Ummer, India

Published April 15, 2022