Gene Campaign

Gene Campaign aims to establish sustainable and climate-resilient agriculture for rural communities, adapting to changing climates. Integrated resource management is vital to counter climate impacts, enhancing resilience and food production stability. Unlike irrigated farming, rainfed agriculture has been fragmented, addressing soil, water, and crops separately. Gene Campaign advocates an integrated approach to counter soil degradation, enhance micronutrients, and adjust pH. Shifting from water-intensive methods to bio-organic practices, focusing on stability over maximum output, is key. Rainfed agriculture should diversify crops, bolster soil health, use techniques like SRI, and minimize external inputs. Raising climate awareness among farmers is crucial. The Agromet Service by the Ministry of Earth Sciences offers real-time weather data to aid farmers in planting and crop choices.

Gene Campaign focuses on improving household food and nutrition through various initiatives. It establishes village-level nurseries for nutritious plants, aiding homestead gardens to combat climate-induced crop losses and provide supplementary nutrition. These nurseries, created through community collaboration, cultivate locally adapted plants like linseed and vitamin A-rich sweet potatoes. Fruit tree saplings and the nutrient-rich Moringa oleifera are promoted. Gene Campaign also educates the community, particularly women and youth, on cultivating these plants. It collects and characterizes edible wild bio-resources, preserving 87 leafy greens and 31 edible plants, enhancing biodiversity. Underutilized foods like tubers, millets, and wild vegetables are revived for homestead gardens. Training in food processing, conducted with Governmental support, ensures year-round nutrition for adolescent girls. Gene Campaign's diverse strategies aim to enhance household nutrition and resilience.

Gene Campaign's initiative focuses on revitalizing underutilized foods, such as tubers, leafy greens, and millets, collected from forests and fields and grown in village gardens to enhance dietary diversity. These crops, historically developed as 'famine foods,' possess resilience to adverse climates. Despite their traditional value, their use has waned due to social changes. By documenting these plants with community elders, Gene Campaign rejuvenates their cultivation, creating a crisis-responsive food bank as a secondary food source. Pseudocereals like amaranth are also reintroduced for nutritional security. Moreover, the organization engages in herbal garden establishment and traditional health practices revival, training communities in indigenous healing methods for both human and veterinary care.

The organisation focuses on conserving India's diverse agrobiodiversity and associated indigenous knowledge. With numerous crop species and wild relatives present, it emphasizes safeguarding genetic wealth through germplasm collections. Tribal areas are hubs of crop domestication and genetic diversity, contributing to disease resistance. Despite this, traditional crop varieties are disappearing due to migration and shifting cultural dynamics, exacerbating India's food crisis. The organisation aims to address the root causes driving these changes and promote sustainable agricultural practices.

Gene Campaign aids rural and adivasi farmers in Uttarakhand and Jharkhand to collect traditional crop varieties, producing certified seeds for local adaptation. It is fostering a community-based breeding programme, creating region-suited crop varieties available to small farmers during planting. Objectives include supplying seeds for rice and contingency crops, ensuring quality, and identifying popular varieties through farmer consultations. Multiplication extends to crops like horse gram, moth bean, and nutritious sweet potatoes. The ultimate goal is to establish Farmer Federations for overseeing seed production and bolstering self-reliance.