Biju Patnaik Tribal Agro-biodiversity Conservation Garden, Jeypore
The ethno-medicinal plants garden on a campus covering 7.20 acres of land has 724 species, including around 24 rare, endemic and threatened plant species. The garden was established with a focus on the knowledge and use of medicinal plants by nine major tribal communities of undivided Koraput district, that is, Paroja, Bhumia, Bhadra, Gadaba, Kandh, Gond, Soura, Koya and Bonda. In addition, there is a paddy conservation plot with 132 landraces; a millet conservation plot with 46 varieties of finger millets and 8 varieties of other millets, that is, little millet (2), proso millet, foxtail millet, kodo millet, pearl millet (2) and barnyard millet; and a wild food garden containing 62 species of wild fruits, leaf and tuber plants of this region. A nutrition garden having 200 varieties of vegetable and fruit plants has also been established (see SPA 504 for more details). During this reporting year, around 3000 plants belonging to 27 species were propagated and provided to 42 schools, the forest department, NGOs, traditional healers, district headquarter hospital, charitable trusts and individual plant lovers. Besides medicinal plants, the traditional healers and forest departments were also provided with seed materials of some of the medicinal plants.
In addition, around 50000 saplings of different nutri-rich plant species such as papaya, drumstick, amla, guava, custard apple, ST-14 sweet potatoes, wood apple and so on were propagated in BPTAbC, Jeypore, nursery. A total of 15000 saplings were distributed in 10 villages covering 800 households of three blocks in Koraput district, and 2000 saplings were distributed to visitors and community members from parts other than the project area. More than 2500 school and college students and faculty members from Agriculture College, Kalahandi, OUAT, Central University Koraput, Centurion University, Paralakhemundi and so on, along with progressive farmers from different parts of Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra, visited the garden as part of their study tour and exposure visits.
People’s Biodiversity Register: As a resource agency, MSSRF had undertaken the task of preparation of people’s biodiversity register (PBR) with support from Odisha Biodiversity Board (OBB). In this context, MSSRF has formed Biodiversity Management Committees (BMCs) in 37 GPs with 259 members covering 185 villages from Boipariguda, Jeypore, Kundra and Boriguma blocks of Koraput district. This year, the responsibility of preparing BMCs in the district as per the guideline of Ministry of Water Resources was given to the Panchayati Raj Department along with Department of Forest and Environment. MSSRF is considered a resource agency by the district administration to guide and provide necessary training to the concerned department staff members. A district-level capacity-building training programme was organized for different cadres of forest officers by the divisional forest officer (DFO), Koraput, under the guidance of MSSRF. In another instance, training was given to the project director, District Rural Development Agency (DRDA), district departments of agriculture and animal husbandry, fishery officer, DFO, Koraput and Jeypore, representatives from tribal research institution, tribal healers along with zilla parishad president and other line departments in the presence of the district collector. A 2-day capacity-building training programme was organized at the BPTAbC, Jeypore, for 90 traditional healers, traders and foresters in Koraput on sustainable harvest of medicinal plants of this region and business strategy. Follow up on the proposal for declaration of Gupteswar as ‘Biodiversity Heritage Site’ and visit of scientists to the Gupteswar area for documentation, were facilitated.
202.7 Grassroots Institution
Over a period of time, MSSRF formed various grassroots institutions for strengthening the workforce at the community level. To begin with, the Panchabati Grama Unnayan Samiti (PGUS) was formed in the year 2003 after the Equator Initiative Award was conferred on tribal communities of the Jeypore tract of Odisha in 2002. Three FPCs and a farmer producer group were formed in 2019 to accelerate the activities at the community level. The PGUS is working in the area of conservation of biodiversity and protective agriculture in 16 villages covering 1086 households. During the reporting year, 70 varieties of paddy landraces and 20 varieties of finger millets were conserved in 6 villages. Around 250 backyard gardens with minimum support of traditional seeds were promoted among farm families in 15 villages to ensure family nutrition. Bahuda FPC Ltd and Kolab FPC Ltd were formed under the ASSM project (see SPA 202.3 for details). In Kundra block, Bamandei FPC Ltd was formed and registered under the Company’s Act. A CEO has been appointed to facilitate the FPC activities; the directors of the FPC have decided on a one-time membership fee of Rs 20 and Rs 100/share; there are currently 42 members and the FPC operates under the umbrella of the Odisha Millet Mission (OMM).