Dallekh is a village in Khar Village Development Committee, Darchula, Nepal. People here grow potato, barley, maize and wheat, and although most youngsters now head off to foreign countries in search of better lives or join the Nepali civil service, a majority of the population still depends directly on agriculture.
Several varieties of grains and legumes are becoming increasing hard to find in Dallekh. The kalo (black) and seto (white) sotta (beans) from Badal’s childhood are disappearing. Varieties of barley such as jhuse jaau (hairy barley), thaang jau (local barley) and kalo jau (black barley) are hard to find, and maize varieties such as baktado and ragase are rare. Badal is worried that these older varieties will be lost forever, and says not many people are interested in agriculture these days.
She pointed out that villagers have started planting more maize these days, and buy rice from the market as road access has increased its easily availability. “Eating rice is considered modern, while eating millet is taken as a sign of backwardness,” she added. Planting and weeding local varieties of crop is also very labour-intensive, she said. She also talked about the climatic changes that have taken place in her lifetime. “When I was young, it would snow throughout January and February,” she said. She pointed out that heavy winter snow meant irrigation was better facilitated then.
Still, Badal remains hopeful about the future of Dallekh’s local crop diversity. She said the fair surprised her because several varieties of crop that she thought were no longer around were displayed at the exhibition. She said that she got to learn about crop variety, and exchange knowledge and information related to the same at the event. “I hope programmes such as this one will help us preserve traditional seeds. Perhaps my grandchildren will be able to utilize these crops in the future,” she said. As future managers of local genetic resource, youngsters do need to be made aware of its importance. More needs to be done in this regard to ensure proper management of local crop diversity.