STUDY OF LANDRACES IN DHADGAON AND AKKALKUWA - TRIBAL BLOCK OF NANDURBAR DISTRICT, MAHARASHTRA, INDIA.
K. Patil 1, S. Patil 2.
1Spark fellow, BAIF Development Research Foundation
Tribal communities are custodians of crop biodiversity and traditional knowledge of plant resources. Nandurbar is a tribal district in Maharashtra having Pawara, Bhilla and Kokana communities residing in hilly tract. Traditional agriculture is the main occupation of farmers. Dhadgaon and Akkalkuwa region have unique crop diversity which includes maize, sorghum, minor millets and pulses. Due to advance of modern agriculture, the diversity of crop is under threat. There is an urgent need to document, collect and conserve germplasm through community participation. In this respect special efforts were made to document Landraces diversity, traditional cultivation practices, crop preference of farmers. Traditional cultivation practices, festivals and rituals associated with farming, specific traits of landraces Etc. Realizing that declining availability of crop germplasm isa major threat; efforts have been initiated for participatory on farm conservation and revival of selected landraces of maize and sorghum with community participation.
Key words: Landrace, Crop diversity, Satpura, Tribal block.
CONSERVATION OF WILD FOOD RESOURCES AT JAWHAR TRIBAL BLOCK IN THANE DISTRICT, MAHARASHTRA STATE
Sanjay Patil andS.M.Wagle
Indian tribal people are well known for collection of wild food resources from forest to meet their hunger during the time of scarcity. Tribal people from Jawhar have beenfood gatherers from forest and meeting their food and nutritional requirements. Due to erosion of nearby forest day by day collection of wild food is vanishing at faster rate. Simultaneously, the wealth of indigenous knowledge is rapidly eroding in younger generation. Changing consuming patterns, modernization and introduction of exotic vegetables are major threat to traditional food resources. There are vast numbers of wild leafy vegetables, edible tubers, nuts, berries and fruits still available in meager quantities.Present work has been made on collection of traditionally consumed food resources atJawhar. Special efforts were made on seasonalavailability, proximatecomposition, propagationtechniques, cultivation practices, medicinal importance, etc.Domestication of these food resources will be a unique conservation efforts with the help of community participation.
Key words: Wild food plants, Conservation, Domestication.
INSECT DIVERSITY IN TWO SACRED GROVES FROM PUNE AND THANE
Mr. GirishPhatak, Mr. ShrirajJakhalekar, Mr. H.V. Ghate and Mr. D.K. Kulkarni
Zoology Department, Modern College, Pune
BAIF, Pune
The rugged region of Sahyadri hills well known for its magnificent view of the deep ravines and rich-biodiversity in reserve forests is dotted with a numberof sacred groves. These relic forest patches are known as Dev- rai or Devache Ban or Dev-rahat. The inventories of sacred groves were documented by several workers from Maharashtra State and recorded floristic and ecological diversity.
Ecological restoration of these sacred groves is not possible in present situation. It can be possible to take few of them for restoration studies. In this respect, Vinzai sacred grove from Mulshi taluka and Kalamvihri sacred grove from Jawhar taluka are selected for ecologicalrestoration point of view. Insect and plant diversity are closely associated. Vinzai sacred grove has 30 types of insects and Kalamvihiri 19 which includes Bugs, Bettles, Ants, Moths, Platerbettle, Roberfly, Dragonfly, etc. This unique diversity of insects in relation to sacred grove will be interesting base for further studies .
Keywords : Sacred grove, Insect diversity, ecological restoration.
CONSERVATION OF SACRED GROVE THROUGH COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN KALAMVIHIRA VILLAGE OF JAWHARTALUKA, THANE DISTRICT, MAHARASHTRA.
KetakiSathe1, Shruti Kulkarni1, SudhirWagle and .Bharat Bhosale
1Spark Fellow, BAIF–MITTRA –Nasik 422011
India has a rich tradition of nature conservation since ancient time. The sacred groves are distributed throughout India and virgin forest patches are dedicated to the local deity by the villagers or the local communities. These are one of the traditional practices that are followed by the local communities for protecting the forest patches. The area of the sacred grove can vary from few trees to hectares. The sanctity of the sacred grove varies from region to region. Kalamvihira is a village situated in the western side of JawharTaluka approximately at a distance of 8 km from the Jawhar city. The one sacred grove in this village has ben fragmented in four different patches over the years due to increase in the agricultural land.
Fragmented sacred groves shows a very different type of vegetation as compared to the vegetation observed outside the sacred grove. The baseline biological survey carried out and indicated mixture of moist deciduous to semi evergreen and evergreen species of trees, greater number of birds present in these sacred groves as compared to the village.The traditional beliefs and rituals are still followed by the elder people in the village, but there is lack of interest observed in the younger generation. The aim of eco-restoration project isto encourage local people and conservation of these sacred groves through peoples’ participation by creating awareness with scientific relevance.
The ecological and socio-cultural status of the sacred groves in the village of Kalamvihira was studied.Several ecological restoration measures have been planned on site with communities now.
Keywords:Sacred groves, Kalamvihira, conservation and restoration, community participation.
CONSERVATION OF INDIGENOUS CROP DIVERSITY IN TRIBAL BLOCKS OF THANE &NANDURBAR DISTRICT IN MAHARASHTRA AND WITH COMMUNITY EFFORTS
Sanjay M.Patil
Conservation of seed diversity is essential and an important in traditional agriculture. It has taken hundreds of years of dedicated efforts of farmers to develop and conserve crop land races suitable for agro-climatic conditions. However, in recent years traditional practices of agriculture have been vanishing due to high external input. Farmers are forced to depend on external sources such as hybrid seeds, chemical fertilizers and highly toxic insecticides which resulted in steep escalation in input cost, environmental degradation, reduction in the biodiversity and rise in mono-cropping.
Development of dwarf varieties for higher grain production has resulted in shortage of fodder for livestock which are an integral part of the farming system. In addition, problems associated with climate change which include rising temperature and unpredictable rainfall pattern among other ill effects have gripped the entire world. The agricultural systems all over the world are searching solutions for increasing the productivity of food crops with changing climatic conditions. Fortunately there are a number of landraces of food crops that are resistant to pests, can grow on poor soils and can sustain under the changed climatic conditions with comparable levels of productivity with high nutritive value. The major task or challenge is to conserve landraces. Present paper deals with BAIF’s approach and experiences in mapping of crop genetic resources, on farm conservation, characterization and evaluation of promising landraces of paddy, finger millet ,proso millet, sorghum and maize cultivars with community seed banking and seed exchange programmed for food security and sustainable livelihood.
Keywords: Seed conservation, community participation, BAIF approach.
STUDY ON VEGETABLE DIVERSITY IN DHADGAON AND AKKALKUWA TRIBAL BLOCK OF NANDURBAR DISTRICT
K. Patil and Sanjay Patil
Spark fellow, BAIF Development Research Foundation
Dhadgaon and Akkalkuwa. tribal regions are situated in Satpura ranges. These regions are harbor of genetic diversity in agricultural crops and vegetables. Local people are cultivating these cultivars since ancient time and meager attention has been given for its documentation. During Spark fellowship program of BAIF, investigations were made on variability pertaining to cultivation practices of vegetables. Special efforts were made to collect genotypic variation among vegetables from different angles like shape, size, maturity, seed variability, duration of vegetable, etc. on gourds, beans and cucumber. This task is important for conservation of genetic diversity among cultivars and needs to be explored in future.
Key words: Vegetable diversity, Satpura, Tribal block.
NUTRITIONAL AND ANALYTICAL CHARACTERIZATION OF INDIGENOUS RICE CULTIVARS IN THANE DISTRICT OF MAHARASHTRA
Yatin R. S. Diwakar1, Sanjay M. Patil2,
- Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai 400076
- BAIF Development Research Foundation,Pune,58
Rice germplasm conservation is a major task in recent years due to interplay of several factors causing threat to important indigenous rice varieties. Indigenous rice varieties has variation in morphological characters. These variations along with analytical parameters and various nutritional properties were studied. On this background local people prefers quality grain for consumption and some claims were made by the local tribal’s. Selection of 14 cultivars out of more than hundred are conserved. The results have been presented along with the three control varieties and reported standards for rice comparison. Some varieties have been identified for further studies and promotion as high nutritious varieties. Some data on medicinal values supported that rice cultivation in tribal areas has significance. Conservation of local landraces of rice before advocacy , establishment of market linkages and development of holistic food items is major priority of the work.
Keywords – Rice cultivars, nutritional characterization, Thane district.
NTFP BASED LIVELIHOOD IN TRIBAL AREAS OF GADCHIROLI
Rasul Sheikh1 and Pramod Meshram
1SPARK Fellow, BAIF, Pune
Category:- Bio prospecting and utilization
Gadchiroli is known as tribal region and is thus under 5th schedule where communities like Gonds and Madias reside for generations together. The study essentially captures status of 5 NTFP s (Non Timber Forest Produce) that are available in forests of Gadchiroli District and details of dependence and associated practices of tribal communities with these. The five species focused are Dhavda(Anogessus latifolia) Satawari(Asparagus racemosus) Chironji(Bachaneia lanzan) Mahua( Madhuca Indica) and Toddy Palm, which are part of existing forests, accessed by tribal communities of Central India . The Study highlights that these tribal communities could get 90 days employments through NTFP harvesting in a year and NTFPs occupy almost 20 %share in total income of these families..During the course of study, efforts were made to assess the resource base, regeneration, existing marketing mechanism, value chain analysis, role of community based organizations like SHGs, Cooperatives, etc. Finally scope for suitable interventions around select NTFPs is also understood in five villages of Etapalli block in Gadchiroli district. The observations can be useful to lay foundation for development of future actions.
Keyword:- Non Timber Forest Produce status ,Tribal Regions ,Gadchiroli