Celebrating Community Seed Banks of India: Conversations on Climate-Resilient Seeds

May 22, 2025

In the face of climate change, we are witnessing the rapid loss of biodiversity that underpins food security and sovereignty. Traditional crop varieties that sustained communities for generations are steadily vanishing from our fields and fading from our diets.

Community Seed Banks (CSBs) play an important role in protecting the seeds needed to support agriculture in a climate-risked world. For example, India has rice varieties that can grow in drought conditions and in saline water. We have heat-resistant vegetable varieties. CSBs play a significant role in preserving these varieties and making them accessible to farmers. Despite their importance, however, they remain under-recognised and underutilised due to lack of awareness, limited policy support, and financial challenges.

This report by CSE is an attempt to map and document the immense diversity available in CSBs across different states of India. The good news is that we have a wide range of traditional crop varieties that are still being conserved by communities. These include grains, pulses, millets, vegetables, oilseeds and more. We need to ensure that the seeds and the efforts of communities preserving them are celebrated.