In the early 1980s, Usha Sulapani, while working as a young agricultural service employee in Palakkad, Kerala, read the book 'The One-Straw Revolution'—a Japanese edition criticizing chemical farming. This book became her guide, prompting her to engage in chemical-free agriculture and view the agrarian sector more broadly than just production.
For many years, Usha observed the deterioration of Kerala's rice ecosystem. The cost of cultivation was rising, grain prices were stagnating, and wetlands were being replaced by real estate, taking with them centuries of ecological balance. Her work against chemical pesticides, particularly Endosulfan, showed her the close link between agriculture, public health, and the environment. She noted that a similar situation was occurring in major rice regions of India.
Between 2005 and 2018, Usha and her colleagues from the organization Thanal traveled through the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, West Bengal, and Chhattisgarh to find farmers who were carefully preserving ancient rice varieties. Some farmers kept these seeds in clay pots or hid them in kitchen rafters. At seed festivals, the older generation shared stories about nearly lost varieties, recalling the smell of freshly cooked rice.
The 'Save Our Rice' campaign contributed to the creation of rice diversity blocks and community seed banks, where people could not only store but also grow, propagate, and exchange traditional varieties. Usha emphasizes that rice is not just a crop, but an ecosystem that supports people, communities, and biodiversity. When fields disappear, livelihoods and ecological balance are also threatened.
Today, thanks to this campaign, over 30,000 farmers in the states of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, and West Bengal are preserving more than 1000 local rice varieties. For Usha, rice diversity also means climate change resilience, nutrition, and farmers' rights. Over generations, people have selected traditional varieties suitable for local landscapes, pests, and growing conditions.
Usha expresses hope that governments will begin to value rice diversity alongside its productivity, and that youth will perceive rice ecosystems as places where significant income sources can develop. She concludes that one seed has the power to start a revolution.
