News from: Anadanna South Asian Network of Soil and Seed Savers, India

South Asian Network of Soil and Seed Savers

02 August 2001

Anadanna Seed Network in Tamil Nadu by Jude Fanton
This one year old project preserves traditional varieties of vegetable crops.

Stefan and Poonam with baby nets that protect seedlings from insects and peacocks

Stefan with his preferred isolation cage to prevent cross fertilisation between varieties

While visiting seed saving groups in India, I made sure I went to see Anadanna in Auroville. It was July and hot. The impressively large seed production gardens were under green manure while waiting for the monsoon to break. The major planting season is from September to December when the weather is cooler.

At the site I met Stefan, a young Frenchman and his Indian wife, Poonam. They helped to establish the organisation from its inception last year. Stefan worked on forming and planting the extensive trial and seed production gardens. Poonam works in the seed bank and helped distribute 50000 packets of vegetable seeds in this last year.

Anadanna has a well organised seed bank and strong links with seed savers in France. Current plans are to extend their work into villages and to other NGOs. While most of the current collection comes from France, they aim to collect and propagate varieties from all South Asia.

For further information