Biodiversity Conservation
Traditional Heritage Agriculture Systems (THAS)

A legacy of our rich history

Agriculture forms the main support system for a majority of the communities in rural India. It has evolved in the midst of diverse agro climatic conditions, flora and fauna and rich socio-cultural heritage. Over the course of several centuries, rural communities have evolved techniques and practices based on indigenous knowledge and skills using the available natural resources.

The cumulative efforts of many generations, have resulted in developing a repository of knowledge and practices. These heritage systems denote the biophysical, technical, social and cultural manifestations of the continually evolving relationship of the people with the land and nature replete with its bio diversity.

Traditional Heritage Agriculture Systems (THAS) includes work in Integrated Farming Systems with diverse multiple crops on farms and homesteads, diversion based irrigation systems, system of Bodi / Tank based irrigation, agro bio diversity-centric livelihood and seed saver groups.

A community led seed conservation model is in place with focus on food security, nutritional security, adaptability to climate change and livelihood generation. The approaches include in-situ conservation and ex-situ gene bank, community participation, indigenous knowledge, science and technology inputs and community ownership.