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Officials, organisers and participants pose for a group photograph during a training programme about community seed banks that was conducted in Kohima during Oct. 9-11.[/caption]
Dimapur, Oct. 14 (EMN): A three-day training programme teaching about enhancing community seed banks was conducted in Kohima during Oct. 9-11. The programme was a collaborative event of the German development agency, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and the department of Agriculture, and nongovernmental agency North East Network.
Farmers from Kohima, Mokokchung, Tuensang, Wokha, and Zunheboto attended the training, the organisers informed. The training was moderated by members of the North East Network. The resource persons for the training were Wekoweu Tsuhah, and Stephen Gangmei, a press release from an agency called Climate Change Adaptation-North Eastern Region (CCA-NER) informed on Sunday.
The press release read: “The purpose of the training was to revive or enhance traditional social seed networks through women led community seed banks. This will help in enhancing the traditional knowledge on seed management as well. The training focussed on understanding local food and agriculture systems, local seed saving and sharing practices and operational aspects of setting up community seed banks. The trainees also visited the women led community seed bank established at Chizami village, Phek district and interacted with the women seed guardians.”
Sütsüngsola, a farmer from Mokokchung district, was said to have commented that she was happy to find one of the millet seed varieties which was said to have been lost in her village. She found the seed at the community seed bank (CSB) of Chizami. She was excited to get the seed for sowing, the organisers stated.
An orientation programme on community seed bank was also held on Oct. 12 for agriculture field functionaries, the organisers said. The programme was conducted with the objective to orient the participants on the concept of community seed bank, which would enable them to “facilitate the farming communities in setting up community seed banks.
During the event, a joint director of the department of Agriculture, S Kivikhu Achumi, encouraged the trainees to work together with the farmers in identifying indigenous seeds which exhibit the special qualities of drought resistance, pest and disease resistance, and are high yielding, and aromatic. The participants were urged to conserve them in order to adapt to climate variability, the updates added.
