Training-cum-Awareness Program on PPV&FR Act, 2001 at Doni (Tehri), Uttarakhand

One day training-cum-awareness program on PPVFR Act, 2001 was organized at Bhilangna Valley in collaboration with Mount Valley Development Association, NGO Partner on 28.02.2019 under UNEP-GEF. Creating awareness among farmers about PPVFR Act and their rights is one of the main activities of UNEP-GEF project thus the program was formulated with the objective of creating awareness among farmers about PPVFR Act, 2001, motivating them for registering their local landraces and farmers’ varieties and to provide technical support in the process of registration. The necessary funding for the program was provided by Bioversity International; PPVFRA, New Delhi and ICAR-NBPGR, New Delhi.
The program started as scheduled with the warm welcome to the 62 present participants and to the team of scientists by Miss Himansha Bisht from MVDA. After welcome notes, Dr J. C. Rana started with the understanding and objective of the program, and emphasized on strengthening our traditional knowledge in the present scenario of climate change. After the essence on the subject, Dr Krishna Madhav Rai briefed the farmers on the about the working of NBPGR and how they are working on conserving the agro biodiversity. He also discussed the importance of biodiversity, various threats to biodiversity and measures to conserve biodiversity with special emphasis on agro-biodiversity conservation. He also discussed the value of traditional crops and their role in the society and why it was so necessary to conserve as well document the existing crop landrace diversity.
With the brief introduction of the NBPGR, Dr Mamta took the platform to aware the farmers on the law linked to the PPV&FR Act, and provide the detail on the subject, the necessity of it and especially for the farmers, award and appreciation and briefing on the registration form. Detailed information on PPV&FR Act, 2001 was provided by and various aspects of the act including access and benefit sharing was also discussed under “Access and benefit sharing in PPV&FR” with the farmers. They were also sensitized about their rights as farmer and as breeder during the talk. She also highlighted the role of National Gene Fund and various awards/rewards conferred to the farmers/farming communities under NGF. All the aspects of registration of Farmers’ Varieties were also discussed and a demonstration of “how to fill the registration form” was given.
As the awareness on the farmer friendly brought insight to the attendees Dr P. S Mehta briefed his years of work on various landraces from Uttarakhand. The availability of different landraces as per the region of Kumoun and Garhwal and their traditional usage was briefed which brought sheer of joy to farmers to look at the varieties that have been disappeared from a generation now. He also highlighted the dietary diversity in Uttarakhand villages and nutritional importance of local food habit.
A detailed discussion on registration process was carried out and various queries raised by farmers were addressed by the resource persons. The registration proforma was also shared with the farmers. The farmers shared their views on the act and welcomed the efforts of the government for safe guarding their rights. They have also agreed to apply for registration of their native landraces and support from MVDA and NBPGR has been assured to them.
The overall program was a success with great participation from the farmers. It was a two way interaction where farmers equally participated in all the discussions and enthusiastically committed for registering their landraces. The program ended with a formal vote of thanks by Mr Navprabhat from MVDA.

(Source: Dr. Mamta Arya, ICAR-NBPGR, Regional Station Bhowali)