Abstract:

Paddy is one of the most important crops in shifting agriculture in North-East India where rice is the staple food. The rich collection of traditional paddy seeds enables farmers to cultivate paddy across a range of soil and climatic conditions as fields shift from one place to another. In the present study, as many as 40 different varieties of paddy were found to be in use in two villages belonging to the Inpui tribe. This paper details the process by which farmers have come to develop such a highly diverse collection of seeds. It focusses on a traditional process, locally known as ‗barom nu’ by which new breeds of paddy are identified, bred and propagated. As paddy is a self-pollinating plant there is little scope for hybrid varieties to emerge from cross pollination.