Beej Bachao Andolan: Beej Bachao Andolan has been going on for 40 years, Vijay Jaddhari is engaged in saving the mountain seeds.

Dehradun. Farmer Vijay Jadadhari, resident of Jadadhar village of Henwal Ghati in Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand, has worked as an activist of the Chipko movement in the 1970s. He was greatly influenced by this movement. After which he has been engaged in the seed save movement for the last 40 years. He has conserved more than 300 mountain seeds. At the age of more than 70, he left his work and dedicated himself to traditional agriculture. In this era of hybrid seeds, he is working to promote traditional seeds like Jhangora, Mandua and Barhanaja.

Vijay Jaddhari said while talking to Local 18 that he has been trying for the last 40 years to save our traditional seeds which have been given to us by nature. He is working not only on seeds but also on traditional agricultural methods like Barhanaja. Earlier farming was not based on machines and modern facilities but was in the hands of the farmer, which he had been learning from the elders. He said that today’s agriculture is such that it is making us sick and these products do not contain complete nutrients. He is doing the work of seed conservation by cultivating more than 300 traditional seeds including Koda, Jhangora, Bhatt.

Got inspiration from Chipko movement
He said that he has also worked as an activist of the Chipko movement. That movement gave us a new direction. In this we all used to chant the slogan ‘What are the benefits of the forest, soil, water and wind, the basis of survival.’ This slogan helped to connect them with nature and traditional farming of the mountains. In the changing times, he saw that the nature, methods and methods of agriculture were changing completely. He said that earlier the farmers in his village used to use hand-made agricultural equipment and natural seeds. At that time farmers used to work together. Vijay Jadadhari has also written about his agricultural experiences in his books. Jaddhari had written a book named ‘Barhanaja’, on which he was awarded the ‘Pranvanand Sahitya’ award for the year 2007 by the Gandhi Peace Foundation based in New Delhi.

Tags: Dehradun news, Local18, Uttarakhand news