Sharing valuable rice varieties with farmers: Biodiversity for the sake of “vital nutrients and the ability to withstand flood, drought, salinity or pest infestations” – Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha Maharashtra & West Bengal

IN BRIEF India originally possessed some 110,000 landraces of rice with diverse and valuable properties. These include enrichment in vital nutrients and the ability to withstand flood, drought, salinity or pest infestations. The Green Revolution covered fields with a few high-yielding varieties, so that roughly 90 percent of the landraces vanished from farmers’ collections. High-yielding … Read more

The Power of Self-Interpretation: Ideas on Starting a Community Museum

[…] To appreciate the potential of the community museum, consider the challenges local communities, especially disadvantaged ones, face today. The effects of globalization include persistent poverty, loss of cultural identity, accelerated migration, and disintegration of the bonds of unity and solidarity within local communities. In this context, the community museum is not a luxury, and … Read more

Audio | Learning about ethnobotany for the sake of food security: Indigenous Food Labs across the United States and beyond

Indigenous foods matter, and maybe now more than ever, said award-winning chef Sean Sherman, the Oglala Lakota founder of The Sioux Chef. “It’s a necessity for our future to create access and knowledge and skills around Indigenous foods,” explained Sherman. Enter Indigenous Food Lab. Sherman and his team have been working on the concept for … Read more

Video | “This land is mine. I will get it back: The struggle of women from the Rana Tharu community – Uttarakhand

Many Adivasis have lost their land in Uttarakhand. But Kamla Devi of Pindari village and Mangola Singh of Nandpur are resisting usury, fraud and gender prejudice to get back their farmland and secure their rights | Read the full story on PARI: People’s Archive of Rural India >> From the earth that Kamla Devi toils … Read more

From Adivasi and Scheduled Tribes to Indigenous Peoples: “Tribes In Transition-II: Reaffirming Indigenous Identity Through Narrative” (National Conference)

Parallel Session 3: The ‘Tribe’ defined in Social SciencesChaired by: Prof. Bipin Jojo, TISS, MumbaiPaper Presenters: Shreya Jessica Dhan (JNU, New Delhi), Anu Krishnan (TISS, Mumbai), Pradyumna Bag (JMI, New Delhi), Evy Mehzabeen (JNU, New Delhi). Shreya Jessica Dhan, in her paper “Defining the ‘Tribe’ in State Discourse: From Adivasi and Scheduled Tribe to Indigenous Peoples”, … Read more