Sowing the seeds of resilience: a case study of community-based Indigenous seed conservation from Andhra Pradesh, India

Despite increasing evidence of threats to Indigenous food systems, many Indigenous communities are innovating to enhance their resilience while conserving and promoting their traditional food systems, offering important lessons for rural development policy. This community-based case study explores one such Indigenous initiative: Sanjeevini, in Andhra Pradesh, India. Sanjeevini has been effective in designing and implementing creative strategies for seed sovereignty and biocultural conservation. These include hosting cultural seed festivals, establishing and maintaining community-based seed banks, and facilitating inter-community seed exchanges.  This paper highlights alternative, community-driven articulations of seed sovereignty while underscoring the significance of this community’s own vision in guiding rural innovation and offering promising working models for cultivating rural resilience.