Repossession Through Community Participation: A Study of Vrihi Community Seed Bank in Odisha

Abstract

Seeds are the building blocks of food security, and their free exchange amongst the farming community has formed the bedrock for maintaining genetic diversity in addition to food security and sovereignty. The appropriation of production, exchange, and marketing of seeds by the corporate over the past decades has altered the agricultural scene in the Global South. Given the conflicting perspectives, mandates, and practices of multiple stakeholders, this article attempts to critically evaluate seed policies in India considering the cultural, economic, and social undertones that characterise them. From the perspective of the sociology of science, this article attempts to trace the shifts in the decline of the ‘rural,’ erosion of national agriculture, policy gaps, and why values matter in India’s development narratives vis-à-vis science and technology solutions. Further, this article investigates, through a case study of Vrihi Community Seed Bank (CSB),1 located in the eastern state of Odisha, how CSBs are progressively being seen as a possible long-term solution to combat the diverse challenges posed by changing agro-climatic conditions, increasing corporatisation, and industrialisation of agricultural and allied practices of food production.