Agartala: The Tuimukh Uttar Pulinpur Village Watershed Committee in Tripura’s Khowai district has received the Plant Genome Saviour Community Award 2023-24 in recognition of its efforts in protecting indigenous crop varieties and fostering sustainable agricultural practices.The award was presented in New Delhi on Thursday by the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority under the Union ministry of agriculture and farmers welfare, in the presence of Dr Pramod Kumar Mishra, principal secretary to the Prime Minister. The committee received Rs 10 lakh, a citation and a memento.Registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, the committee covers around 120 hectares of farmland in Uttar Pulinpur and nearby regions within the Teliamura subdivision. The committee has been dedicated to the preservation of traditional varieties of crops, including rice, maize, foxtail millet, pigeon pea, mustard, tomatoes, pumpkins, gourds, turmeric and chillies.The award citation highlighted the committee’s traditional seed-exchange programme, which plays a crucial role in maintaining indigenous varieties and enhancing seed security at the village level. The committee has also constructed water conservation infrastructure and solar-powered irrigation systems through watershed management projects and the NICRA initiative, which enabled cultivation on previously unused land.Farmers, women and youth participated in the initiatives with technical support from the Khowai Krishi Vigyan Kendra.This accomplishment underscores the importance of blending traditional agricultural knowledge with contemporary water management practices to promote biodiversity conservation and sustainable livelihoods in rural areas.
