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.