A decade ago, Chandra Pradhani, a Paraja tribal of Nuaguda village in Kundra block of Odisha's Koraput district, would migrate to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh to earn a living as a brick kiln worker. He no longer does this. Today, he is feted by the nation. He was one of the tribal farmers honoured by prime minister Manmohan Singh at the 99th Science Congress held in Bhubaneswar in January. It is the hard labour and traditional agricultural techniques of tribal families that have helped put Koraput on the map of world agriculture.

When we reflect back in the past, we recollect Pandit Nehru's declaration soon after Independence in 1947, 'Everything else can wait but not Agriculture'. In 1948, Mahatma Gandhi orchestrated 'God is bread to the hungry'. This perspective of our national leadership led to the development of research institutions and the systems for technology-led agricultural growth in our country, which started with experiments in wheat and rice, and then ushered in vegetables, fruits, milk, fish, poultry, mushroom, honey, cotton, castor, soybean, maize etc., where we made good progress.

The Asian green revolution trebled grain yields through agrochemical intensification of monocultures. Associated environmental costs have subsequently emerged. A rapidly changing world necessitates sustainability principles be developed to reinvent these technologies and test them at scale. The need is particularly urgent in Africa, where ecosystems are degrading and crop yields have stagnated.

The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers

The local farmers possess an immense knowledge of their environment. An effort was made to carryout a research on the conservation and testing of nitrogen effect over the location specific indigenous paddy varieties in purposively selected tribals

Over the years many Big Ideas have been imposed on Africa from outside. The latest is that the region should sell or lease millions of hectares of land to foreign investors, who will bring resources and up-to-date technology. None of the blueprints has worked, and African farmers have become increasingly impoverished.

The Eastern Himalayan region has been proposed as another National Agricultural Biodiversity Heritage Site, based on six indices. The region is the richest in species diversity among the northeastern states of India. It is the center of diversity for several widely distributed plant taxa and a crucible for speciation encompassing several primitive familities.

The Jeypore tract of Orissa, India is famous for the genetic diversity of Asian cultivated rice and has been considered the center of origin of aus ecotype. The landraces or traditional varieties growing here are thought to harbor dominant genes for biotic and abiotic stresses, aroma and palatability and hold promise for their utilization in future plant breeding and biotechnology programs.

The bicentenary of Charles Darwin's life and work reminds us that the great biodiversity on Earth underlies natural selection, selective breeding, and the biotechnologies required to provide humanity with food, fiber, fodder, and fuels.