Preserving Seeds Naturally

We dry the seeds for four to five days. After drying, we dry the neem leaves. We keep the neem leaves with the seeds for protection.

— RUDRA PRASAD BAG · Mahulpāra, Nuapada, Odisha

We disinfect the seeds with neem leaves, store them in a pot, and then use them.

— Upendra Kumar Mahananda

We are carefully drying the seeds for four to five days. After that, we are nicely wrapping the seeds in bundles with the help of neem leaves and storing them.

— RUDRA PRASAD BAG · Mahulpāra, Nuapada, Odisha

Here, we preserve pulse seeds like black gram (urad) and pigeon pea (arhar) for planting in the next season. We mix them with ash or powdered dry neem leaves, which prevents insects. Then, in the next year, we sow those same seeds in the field. This is how we preserve them.

— Ram Kumari · Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh

In our region, even without rain, we cultivate crops like moong, urad, and horse gram. We also preserve their seeds by mixing them with neem leaves.

— Kunakanta Behera · Dashapalla, Nayagarh, Odisha

In rain-fed land, we cultivate horse gram and green gram, and we store their seeds safely by using neem and karanja leaves.

— Sita Behera · Dashapalla, Nayagarh, Odisha

My name is Netrananda Bag, village Mahul Pada. Traditionally, we dry moong, masoor, and chana seeds in the sun for four to five days. We also dry neem leaves. Then we mix them all together, tie them up completely, and store them, and sow these seeds the next year.

— RUDRA PRASAD BAG · Dongargaon, Nuapada, Odisha

We mix the seeds with neem leaves and store them in earthen pots, and we use them the following year.

— Upendra Kumar Mahananda

Cover the seeds with neem leaves, store them in a pot, and use them.

— Upendra Kumar Mahananda

When there was no rain, I cultivated green gram, black gram, and horse gram. I store the seeds by mixing them with neem leaves.

— Sushama Digal · Dashapalla, Nayagarh, Odisha

In rain-fed land, we cultivate horse gram and green gram, and we store the seeds safely in the village using neem leaves and karada leaves.

— Sita Behera · Dashapalla, Nayagarh, Odisha

When preserving seeds, if we dry them well, and mix them with ash and neem leaf powder before storing, then the seeds remain good, are not affected by pests, and grow well when sown.

— Ram Kumari · Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh

Mother, why do you cultivate without irrigation? What do you cultivate? Mung bean and Black gram. Today, we can dry them and keep them as seeds. Yes, how do we keep them? We dry them and keep them with neem leaves.

— Kanaka Pradhan · Balangir, Odisha

Burma, you farm for Osha, don't you? Yes, what do you farm? Moong and Kulthi. Yes, Kulthi is farmed. And how do you store those seeds? We put neem leaves and store them after drying them properly.

— Kanaka Pradhan

Even without rain, I cultivate moong (green gram). And I preserve the seeds by using eggplant leaves and neem leaves.

— Kunakanta Behera · Dashapalla, Nayagarh, Odisha

In our past, we used to bundle seeds like Kulthi, Biri, Moong, and Dhudung in Sialpata leaves and store them, and these seeds would remain insect-proof.

— Parikshit Majhi

My name is Dillip Kumar, from Mahulpada village. After the rice cultivation is finished, we cultivate green gram and black gram. We dry the seeds in the sun, mix them with neem leaves, tie them tightly, and sow those stored seeds the following year.

— RUDRA PRASAD BAG · Mahulpāra, Nuapada, Odisha

Keep horse gram, green gram, and neem leaves dried.

— Mamata Panigrahi

Then we dry those seeds, and after drying, we keep them in rice straw as seeds. My seeds remain inside that straw.

— pinku sunani · Karangamāl, Nuapada, Odisha

We plough the field and sow horse gram. It grows with dew drops. We sterilize the seeds with ash from a wood stove and then store them.

— Upendra Kumar Mahananda

After Anukuta, we observe the soil moisture, plow the field, and sow green gram and black gram. We keep these seeds stored at home.

— Bharati Khandapatra · Mayurbhanj, Odisha

Mother, why do you cultivate without planting? Why do you farm? How do you know how to store my black gram, pigeon pea, chickpea, and lentil seeds? You preserve them using neem leaves and dauna leaves.

— Kanaka Pradhan · Titlagarh, Balangir, Odisha

We store moong pulse seeds using traditional methods and sow the seeds as a Rabi crop with zero irrigation after the Kharif season crop harvest.

— Ahalya Sahu · Kalahandi, Odisha

I, Sukhlal Parkhi from Rampur Mewara, cultivate pigeon pea, chickpea, flaxseed, and mustard in these hilly regions using zero-irrigation farming. We collect seeds using traditional methods. We put neem leaves in seed storage.

— narayanlalbaranda5@gmail.com · Jhapa, Dungarpur, Rajasthan

After harvesting the paddy, we sow green gram, black gram, and chickpeas in this field without water. We harvest them and store them in our house, ensuring no pests infest them.

— Parikshit Majhi · Balangir, Odisha

We also preserve seeds in a traditional way.

— Sunil oraon · Ranchi, Jharkhand

We do farming. We save some seeds beforehand and then cultivate. This way, we get many crops, including green gram, black gram, and pigeon pea.

— Ulapi Sahu · Balangir, Odisha

We keep green gram, black gram, and horse gram seeds, and cultivate them in the second crop.

— Puspanjali Nag

Mix cow dung with 500 neem leaves and our bagula leaves, then store it wrapped in sal leaves. As for the corn, we keep it in the tank along with its husks.

— Dhananjaya Harpal · Bhawanipatna, Kalahandi, Odisha

Chickpeas and gumbra are our old seeds, which we preserve and then sow.

— Vinita Singh Yadav · Mukasim, Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh

This year, we have cultivated green gram, black gram, and chickpeas. We will save the seeds to cultivate them again next year.

— Gitanjali Bhoi · Karamdihi, Sundargarh, Odisha

After harvesting the paddy, we plough the land by observing the leaves, and then cultivate green gram and black gram. We use those seeds along with brinjal leaves and lemon leaves.

— Bharati Khandapatra

Yes, we collect and preserve traditional seeds. We purify the soil using neem leaves, cow urine, and cow dung. And if necessary, without water...

— Santosh Barik · Kalahandi, Odisha

Our ancestors used to cultivate pulses as a second crop using organic methods without irrigation, and I also follow this method every year by storing black gram and horse gram seeds.

— Kumudini Chhanchan · Bhojpur, Sambalpur, Odisha

We stored the chickpea seeds carefully so that we can cultivate next year.

— Sunita Kumari

The oldest seeds we have are Hyacinth beans, paddy, moong beans, urad beans, and horse gram. We dry the seeds in the sun and store them by tying them in bundles.

— Anirudha Marai · Sambalpur, Odisha

Yes, we grow other crops and also preserve seeds like black gram, pigeon pea, and green gram.

— Jagannath Baraik · Ranchi, Jharkhand

We keep seeds of mustard, green gram, horse gram, tuber crops, black gram, and taro for cultivation without water.

— Puspanjali Nag

We will cultivate mustard, green gram, and other crops, store their seeds, and cultivate them again next year.

— Gitanjali Bhoi · Sundargarh, Odisha

We carefully keep the chickpea seeds so that we can cultivate next year.

— Sunita Kumari