National Paddy Seed Festival 2019 – Grand Success with 7500 participants from Pan-India: Reported by Prof. Dr. P Duraisingam

Seed saving, conservation, sharing and exchange is not a new thing. This was practiced by farmers for centuries. Every 15Kms radius,there was a variety which were developed and nurtured by the farmers and that is how they maintained genetic, crop and seed diversity. The monoculture mindset of the policy makers has changed the entire natural process resulted in narrow down the genetic base. Through Save Our Rice Campaign (SoR), CREATE started an attempt to revive and popularize our local rice varieties in 2007 among rice growing farmers and also with consumers. With the support and guidance of Late Shri G. Nammalvar, the idea of organizing Paddy Festival (Nel Thiruvizha) was conceived by Late Shri Nel Jayaraman, the State Co-ordinator of CREATE – Save Our Rice Campaign in 2007.

From there it has become an annual event and continued until his death in 2018. In the process, more than 175 traditional rice varieties have been revived.

Now, it is our collective responsibility to continue and revive many more traditional paddy varieties and make it reach among farmers and consumers and also influence state policies and priorities in support of this initiative. In the above context, 13th National Paddy Festival has been planned 0n 8th and 9th June 2019 at Thiruthuraipoondi. On behalf of CREATE, we make this appeal to all to support and generously contribute in organizing the festival with great success as we did in the past. Your contribution can be deposited in the following bank account of CREATE.