In the spring of 2012, in the West Bengal Sundarbans, Sudhanshu Dey bent down to the soil with a handful of indigenous rice seeds. The Sundarbans had already taught him and his community hard lessons. Every year, cyclones and tidal floods swept across their lands, leaving behind saltwater that poisoned the fields. For four or five years at a stretch, farmers would watch their fields lie barren, their labour unrewarded, their hopes drowned.

By 2014, government offices began distributing salt-tolerant rice seeds. They came free of cost, with promises of survival in saline soils. But when the harvests came, the truth was bitter. Yields were poor, the grain lacked taste, and the price in the market did not justify the farmer’s effort. Land lost its value, and families lost their faith.

Yet, in the corners of villages, farmers had preserved their own indigenous seed varieties, passed down through generations. When sown, these seeds stood tall against the salt. They yielded better, tasted richer, and carried the strength of their ancestors. For Sudhanshu, now 60, that was the turning point.

Determined to test this himself, Sudhanshu filled large plastic pots with soil. He poured five litres of water and mixed in salt bought from the market. Into this, he planted ten local rice varieties. He watched closely to see how much salinity each could endure.

“It was a small experiment,” he recalls, “but it carried a big dream: to find which native varieties could secure our future.”

From this dream grew the Durbachati Folk Seed Bank in his village of Durbachati. Today, it holds 192 local rice varieties, including several from the state, proudly called “Banglar Dhan” or paddy of Bengal — a place where the Green Revolution nearly wiped out a 5,000-year rice heritage.

Each variety is planted in neat plots of 10 feet by 10 feet, with 100 seedlings spaced carefully apart. From these beds, seeds are collected, preserved, and shared. Farmers take them, NGOs and government departments purchase them, and the cycle continues.

“When we hold these seeds in our hands, we feel we are holding our ancestors’ wisdom,” says farmer Barendra Nath Jana, who now cultivates Dudhersar on his saline plot in Gopal Nagar village.

Alor Barta– message towards light

Sudhanshu’s vision has grown into a........

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