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Annadana

South-Asian Network of Soil and Seed Savers

Annadana, a network of seed-production, nutrition-education and protection of genetic resources in India and south-Asia, is a young organisation promoting the creation of a network of production, conservation and exchange of seeds of traditional varieties of vegetables, pulses, minor cereals and all the plants able to favour the development of sustainable agriculture.

The most essential foundation of the 'Annadana' network is the development of home-gardening which is the ultimate fortress against malnutrition and the erosion of biodiversity, and one of the main centres for this will be in Auroville.

Auroville as a pilot-unit

Annadana will work in India, in Bangladesh, in Sri Lanka, in Nepal and in Pakistan, and one of its immediate priorities is the creation in Auroville of a seed-wealth centre that would act as a research institute for nutrition-education and vegetable seed-production. Such a pilot-unit can be duplicated in other regions of India by other institutes, NGOs or farmers-organisations.

This seed-wealth centre will be constituted of 4 acres of seed-gardens and of a building of 100 m2 for educational work (office and workshop room) and for seed processing (cleaning, stockage, packaging). The land has been acquired and, as the photos on this page may indicate, work has begun, and during the recent winter season a good start was made with various programmes.

Some winter programmes

• During the month of September, the Annadana team gave three workshops on making a compost pile using surrounding materials: animal manure (horse and cow), rejected biomass, and Efficient Micro-organisms. Furthermore, two sessions were dedicated to soil preparation, including double digging and multiple layering. The workshops were attended by ten Aurovilian gardeners, and others.

• During the winter gardening season we offered a new workshop on seed sowing on germination trays, transplanting the seedlings in small pots, and onto the prepared garden bed. Seeds were freely given and we also indicated the appropriate species for the season. All workshops were held at the Auroville Botanical Garden.

• During December '01 we had a delightful visit from Maurice Chaudiere, a French master in the art of beekeeping and fruit tree grafting, as well as a sculptor. All people working with him immensely enjoyed his presence and valuable information obtained from him.

Training programmes of the research institute

Generally, the goal of the research institute is to train 'nutrition-resource' and 'seed-resource' people, and of course Auroville is an ideal place for this. To this end, the following courses are further envisaged:

1. Training programmes for production, selection and breeding of seeds and protection of genetic resources.

2. Educational programmes to highlight the synergies between genetic resources, nutrition, health, cooking and preserving.

3. Training programmes for other research institutes specialised in nutrition-education, genetic resources-protection and seed-production.

4. To create awareness about the importance of local indigenous varieties among farmers to encourage and assist them in conservation.

5. Training programmes to support farmers-networks of seed exchange.

Contact: annadanaseedsavers@auroville.org.in 

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