Our Crop Our Pride: Custodian Farmers to Traditional Crops of Sikkim

Sikkim covering just 0.2 % of the geographical area of the country has tremendous biodiversity and has been identified as one of the Hot-Spot in the Eastern Himalayas. From the ancient time a wide diversity of crops are grown here and the crops are well adapted to the local growing conditions. This spirit of remaining close to nature has also helped to maintain such crop diversity till today. To showcase this wealth of crop biodiversity of the state, ICAR-National Research Centre for Orchids and Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Right Authority (PPVFRA) of Government of India jointly organized “First State Level Exhibition of Farmers Varieties of Sikkim” in June, 2015 and took further initiative to document the contribution of the farmers of Sikkim state in conserving the local crops and their varieties along with identifying farmers or communities involved in conserving orchids. This publication followed ICARs "Farmers First" approach and documented their role in today’s time for conserving the agro biodiversity of this Himalayan state. The focus being the Farmers at first and then the crops they maintain. The names of crops, varieties and varietal features have been documented as such as per the information obtained from the farmers to provide the information in genuine manner. Keeping with the spirit of “Mera Gaon Mera Gaurav” scheme launched by Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the documentation has been titled as “Our Crop, Our Pride: Custodian Farmers of Traditional Crops of Sikkim”.