Koraput Dongria Kondh Seed Diversity Bank Odisha

Koraput district in Odisha's highlands is home to one of the world's most significant in-situ agrobiodiversity conservation systems maintained by Kondh and Saura tribal communities who cultivate over 1,000 traditional rice varieties, 200 millets, and hundreds of legume, vegetable, and tuber varieties in their shifting cultivation (podu) fields. The Jeypore plateau — the world's secondary centre of rice diversity after the Yangtze delta — contains wild relatives of cultivated rice that international gene banks draw on for disease resistance traits. The Dongria Kondh of the Niyamgiri hills practice a precise inter-cropping system that maintains varietal diversity through rotational sowing of 10-30 rice varieties per village per season, preserving obscure varieties with specific culinary uses, ritual significance, or tolerance to waterlogging and drought. The Koraput Community Seed Bank at Jeypore, established with support from M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, documents tribal seed names and properties and provides village-level seed storage infrastructure. The region's biodiversity has been threatened by expansion of commercial cotton and soybean cultivation.