Odisha man left job to build seed bank saving India’s traditional rice varieties

A rice landrace is a traditional variety adapted to a particular region, climate, soil, and farming community. Farmers usually maintain it over generations, selecting seeds for useful local qualities. Landraces can carry genetic traits that modern uniform varieties may lack.

Vrihi is different from a commercial seed seller because it does not mainly sell seed for profit. Its model is exchange. A farmer can receive an indigenous rice variety free by giving about 1 kilogram of another folk rice variety. The returned seed goes to another farmer, keeping the resource circulating.

If a farmer has no traditional seed, Vrihi provides a 1-kilogram packet after a security deposit. The deposit is returned when the farmer brings back 2 kilograms after harvest. This encourages planting and multiplication. Vrihi therefore functions as a living community seed bank, not simply a shop or storage facility.

Vrihi’s collection contained 1,480 rice landraces as of April 2024. These varieties came from indigenous farmers in India and from farmers or conservationists in countries including Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Korea, Italy, and the Philippines. The collection is notable for both its size and unusual traits.

Its network has reached more than 8,000 indigenous farmers in 13 Indian states, according to Vrihi’s official website in June 2026. Earlier milestones show the network’s growth. Membership rose from 21 people in early 1998 to 1,680 by early 2015. By April 2019, more than 7,600 farmers had exchanged seeds of 910 varieties.

These figures show that Vrihi is more than a static collection. Its seeds move between the research farm and farming communities. Each exchange can help preserve a variety while placing it back into cultivation, where farmers can continue adapting and multiplying it.

Deb’s search began in 1995, when he looked for disappearing traditional rice varieties in remote parts of western and northern West Bengal. Many tribal farmers there still grew locally adapted rice. Their fields held varieties that could easily vanish if farmers stopped planting and sharing them.

Vrihi says commercial seed systems and agricultural modernisation contributed to this loss. Traditional seeds had once been treated as community resources. Farmers exchanged them with relatives, friends, and neighbours rather than treating them as commercial products. As farming systems changed, that exchange culture and many local food traditions came under pressure.

Deb established Vrihi in 1997 as part of a wider folk-crop conservation movement led by the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology. The project aimed to collect, grow, and redistribute traditional seed. Its purpose was not only to preserve samples, but also to keep varieties in farmers’ hands and fields.

Vrihi’s system is built around circulation rather than sale. A farmer may receive an indigenous rice variety free of cost by giving about 1 kilogram of seed from at least one folk rice variety. Vrihi then passes that seed to another farmer, extending the exchange network.

Farmers without a traditional variety can still participate. They take a 1-kilogram packet after paying a security deposit. After harvest, they return 2 kilograms of that rice. Vrihi refunds the deposit once the returned seed arrives. This arrangement gives farmers access while creating a clear reason to grow and multiply the variety.

The system protects seed as a shared resource. It reduces the chance that a packet will be taken away, unused, or lost. It also lets farmers contribute even when they begin with no traditional seed. In this way, each harvest can support future exchanges and widen access to indigenous rice.

Storing seeds alone is not enough. Vrihi grows every rice variety at its Basudha research farm each year so the seeds can be regenerated. This keeps the collection usable and provides fresh seed for future distribution. It also confirms that each variety remains part of a living conservation program.

Researchers plant samples in small plots. They harvest core sample panicles from each plot and store them for the next season. Because hundreds of varieties grow close together, pollen could move between plants and create unwanted crosses. That could alter the identity of a traditional variety.

To reduce this risk, Vrihi uses asynchronous flowering. Varieties with different flowering periods are transplanted into neighbouring plots, so they are less likely to release and receive pollen at the same time. The method does not make crossing impossible, but it helps preserve each variety’s distinct characteristics while allowing the collection to be cultivated and renewed.

Traditional rice varieties can carry traits valuable under difficult farming conditions. Vrihi says its collection includes varieties able to withstand drought, flooding, or salty soils. It also lists varieties showing resistance to different pests and diseases. Such diversity gives farmers and researchers more options when conditions change.

The collection’s differences are visible in other ways too. Jugal is described as a double-grain rice, while Sateen is a triple-grain variety. Kharah and Makhan have purple culms and leaves. Vrihi also says numerous landraces are rich in vitamin B complex, and around 30 contain two essential omega-3 fatty acids.

These traits matter because no single rice variety performs best everywhere. A drought-tolerant type may help in dry regions, while flood or salinity tolerance may matter elsewhere. The article documents these reported characteristics, but does not claim every variety will perform equally in every farm or environment.

Genetic diversity is agriculture’s backup system. Different rice varieties carry different combinations of traits. If a new pest, disease, flood, drought, or salty soil harms one variety, another may cope better. Preserving many varieties therefore protects choices that could matter for future harvests and food supplies.

Vrihi’s collection shows why this matters. It includes rice reported to tolerate drought, flooding, or salinity, as well as varieties showing resistance to pests and diseases. These traits are held in a broad living collection of 1,480 landraces. Farmers can receive seed through exchange, so conservation remains connected to cultivation.

Changing environments make this diversity especially valuable. Growing and sharing varieties keeps their seed available and lets farmers test locally suitable options. Vrihi cannot guarantee that every landrace will solve a future problem, and the article makes no such claim. But maintaining many distinct varieties preserves possibilities that could otherwise disappear.