“Barahnaja” twelve grain, The traditional biodiverse agricultural system. Uttarakhand has the potential for providing nutritional food security, sustained animal husbandry, and environmental conservation. It is not mechanized farming, but science based on truth and non-violence. This system promises plenty for all.
The modern agricultural practice only talks about the quantified value, mechanization and is based on a monocropping system which has resulted in lots of farmers losing their lives throughout the country.
The local villagers grow many of the “Barahnaja” crops and it remains their collective responsibility to pass on the knowledge to the next generation.
Blessed with rich diversity, the people of Uttarakhand were indeed prosperous at one time. The effects of the green revolution were also felt in the mountains which urged them to alter their traditional practices and move from cultivating diversity to monoculture crops. Reviving the “Barahnaja” system which possesses all the necessary ingredients for the community’s food and nutritional security is a time tested way of increasing biodiversity. Millets like “Madua”, ”Jhangora”, ”Koni”, ”Ramdana”, ”Bhatt”, “Ogal” are some of the modern-day neutraceuticals. Healthy eating is the key to living a healthy life.
An aspirational modern life-style that encourages the eating of pre-packaged fast food has resulted in many diseases that did not exist before. By working and honoring traditional ways of farming the local villagers are slowly becoming aware of the immense health benefit of eating traditional food.
