I am impressed by this short video on giving voice to rural farmers by Noel Magor. It re brings out story about the Society For Conservation of Mango Diversity (SCMD) an organization working for community growing and conserving the mango diversity in the Malihabad,the famous mango growing area near Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
As it is said that the poor farmers are deprived of the access to the technologies for sustainable agriculture and livelihoods. These farmers themselves are now looking for safeguarding the locally available technologies and conserving them for the future.
At Malihabad, the SCMD, as a community organization, is playing an important role in on-farm conservation of farmer’s mango varieties in Malihabad area. The society SCMD is formed by the local farmer growers in 2009 and has the technical support of the Central Institute for Subtropical Horticulture (CISH) the constituent establishment of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) under the UNEP/GEF project on ‘Conservation and Sustainable Use of Cultivated and Wild Tropical Fruit Diversity: Promoting Sustainable Livelihoods, Food Security and Ecosystem Services’.
Currently, more than 600 mango farmers are associated with this organization. There are about 3,000 unique mango varieties available with these communities. This organization is sensitizing the farmers/communities for on farm conservation of mango diversity through awareness interactions, diversity fairs, linking with markets, study visits, trainings and interaction meetings. The local communities have brought out farmers mango catalogue and could good success in popularizing and selling rare mango varieties available locally to the prospective buyers.
To socialize with the SCMD visit its Facebook page or add it as Facebook friend or follow on Twitter
This blogpost is written by Sridhar Gutam, one of the GCARD social reporters
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