Formed in 2018 in Teertha village, the Bibi Fatima Women's Self-Help Group established a community seed bank beside Bibijaan Maulasaab Halemani's home to protect disappearing agricultural varieties. Farmers borrow indigenous seeds from the repository and replenish the bank by returning a larger volume after each harvest. To encourage adoption, the group distributed Navdanya kits containing nine types of millet seeds for one-acre trial plots across surrounding communities. The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare has formally recognized the collective with the Plant Genome Saviour Community Award.
Key points
Community seed banks can effectively safeguard regional biodiversity by encouraging farme…: Community seed banks can effectively safeguard regional biodiversity by encouraging farmers to return extra seeds after every harvest.
Hands-on field demonstrations and multi-crop starter kits help persuade skeptical agricul…: Hands-on field demonstrations and multi-crop starter kits help persuade skeptical agricultural communities to adopt sustainable farming practices.
Grassroots conservation initiatives can scale successfully into broader ventures that res…: Grassroots conservation initiatives can scale successfully into broader ventures that resolve post-harvest hurdles through local millet processing.
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In 2018, Bibijaan Maulasaab Halemani brought together 14 women from her village in Karnataka with a common goal: to save traditional crop seeds that were disappearing from local farms. Eight years later, the small women's collective has grown into a community-led agricultural initiative working across 30 villages, helping farmers revive millet cultivation and preserving hundreds of indigenous seed varieties.
The group, known as the Bibi Fatima Women's Self-Help Group (SHG), has now been selected for the Plant Genome Saviour Community Award, instituted by the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority (PPVFRA) under the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare. The award carries a cash prize of ₹10 lakh, a certificate and a memento. The award ceremony is scheduled to take place in New Delhi on November 12, 2026.
As reported by The New Indian Express, the group was recognised for conserving indigenous crop varieties, protecting traditional seeds and promoting sustainable farming practices. For Halemani, however, the work began with an interest she inherited from her father and a concern that crops familiar to earlier generations were slowly…
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