Paper long abstract:

India, a mega-diversity country is endowed with rich natural heritage and indigenous peoples as its custodians. Soon after independence in 1947; agricultural policies and programmes started to promote green revolution technologies and subsidies across the country. However, situation changed at the turn of the century and many interventions were launched in seed conservation, organic farming and revival of older crops and varieties. These small steps have caught on and now evolved into programmes for natural farming with some sensitivity towards , nutrition in promotion of millets and other traditional crops especially in regions predominantly inhabited by indigenous peoples.

These interventions are now being planned at the grassroots level by the village elected representatives and leaders of women self-help groups taking the ownership of programmatic planning at the village level. Many NGOs are also playing a key role in capacity building as well as demonstrations of sustainable and agro-ecological agriculture for the community as well as government functionaries. These lessons are being woven into State and National plans and policies; though biocultural heritage and spiritual values of agrarian landscapes and lifestyles have still not found adequate space. This paper provides a glimpse into some of the salient aspects of this journey in terms of ‘what’ is happening and ‘how’ its being planned, implemented and promoted as positive as well as negative lessons. These lessons may be particularly useful for countries predominantly inhabited by smallholders and are rich in natural resources and traditional heritage agriculture systems.