Tribal areas in Orissa are rich in crop diversity including rice. Farmers require rice varieties with preferred cooking properties. Modern high-yielding varieties do not fulfil this need. Therefore local varieties and landraces rich in genetic diversity are still grown. Increasing costs of cultivation and livelihood disrupt this practice, consequently hastening genetic erosion. In this back-drop, providing them a sustainable livelihood is a prime concern. The results of a designed study of rice production under farmers’ management and practices have suggested a few paradigms of participatory genetic enhancement outlined in this paper.