Cheruvayal Raman, the Kurichiya farmer who kept 55 native rice varieties alive on three acres, dies at 76

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The news

Thiruvananthapuram, October 14. Cheruvayal Raman, the Kurichiya tribal farmer of Wayanad known as ‘Nella achaan’, father of rice, died on Wednesday at 76 at Kozhikode Medical College, The Indian Express reports. He began in paddy fields at ten and studied to Class 5. Around 2000 he started collecting indigenous varieties from fields across Wayanad; by 2016 he sowed all 55 every year on his three acres, in small plots, while scientists and governments promoted high-yielding hybrids. He never sold seed: he shared it on condition that farmers return part of their harvest as seed, and kept his stock in bamboo baskets in a century-old mud house. He received the Padma Shri for agriculture in 2023 and the National Plant Genome Saviour Award of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority.

Prelims nuggets

Section 39 of the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001 lets a farmer save, use, sow, re-sow, exchange, share or sell seed of a protected variety, provided it is not sold as branded seed.
The Plant Genome Saviour Farmer Reward is given under Section 39(1)(iii) of the Act with the Gene Fund Rules of 2012: ₹1.5 lakh each, at most ten a year (per the PPV&FR Authority).
The Plant Genome Saviour Community Award is given under Section 45 of the Act, which creates the National Gene Fund.