Empowerment of women for seed and food security
A special session has been organised on ‘Seed Fest 2019’ at MSSRF on international women’s day. The seminar session was inaugurated by K.V. Sreeja, Seed Savor, Agricultural and Cultural Women Activist. Srimati. K.V. Sreeja stated that though the agriculture is a women-dominated field, gender discrimination is still prevalent especially in the management of powerful agriculture resource like a seed. She mentioned that women have a predominant role in ensuring food safety. In the context of the erosion of crop diversity, she emphasized the need of establishing a network of likeminded people focusing on the exchange of seeds, culture and art with visible leadership of women as a tangible solution. It is evident that many of the traditional varieties have the resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses’.
Dr. C.S Chandrika, Principal Social Scientist, MSSRF presided the function.Ms. Mini Kollam and members of Vanamallika tribal women’s group, were honoured in the function for their remarkable contribution to agrobiodiversity protection, value addition and marketing of seasonal forest produces.
Ms Devla, Ms Latha Vijayan took a lead role in panel session and revealed their experience in overcoming crop diversity erosion in the last year’s massive flood. They shared their experience and will power to face such calamity. P. Sajitha, Kudumbasree District mission coordinator, explained the initiatives of Kudumbasree to protect crop diversity through women collectives.