Rice seed villages with a group of farmers is being formed for the production of traditional
paddy seeds of Wayanad to cater the seed needs of themselves, fellow farmers of the village and
farmers of neighboring villages in appropriate time and at affordable cost. Appropriate training is
being provided to the villages on various aspects of rice farming which includes quality seed
production, pest and diseases management as well as storage. The farmers are also provided with
seed boxes in order to ensure the seeds are stored properly. Each village will be custodians of 3
or more traditional paddy varieties and efforts are being carried out to persuade them to cultivate
more varieties in order to ensure the traditional seeds availability among the farming community.
The paddy seeds exchanged between farmers are recorded by the seed villages so that the
quantum of seeds purchased/ and the area of expansion can be easily enumerated. The marketing
of the traditional rice varieties are being done as red rice, white rice and aromatic rice by linking
with the Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) established by CAbC.
Rice seed purification program
Seed purification practices are being carried out in various rice seed villages in order to ensure
the availability of purified seeds. The seed purification for 10 traditional varieties (adukkan,
veliyan, chenthadi, chomala, chenellu, gandakasala, jeerakasala, thondi, mullanchanna and
kalladiyaran) is envisaged in this program. The seed purification process is done for three
consecutive years. Interventions like SRI are also initiated in the appropriate villages in order to
increase the production of the paddy