Aiming for an era of ‘biohappiness' in India

The Hindu

2 days ago

Recently, on a trip to Arunachal Pradesh, we were amazed by the diversity of greens in the diet — all freshly plucked from the forest and fields. Similarly, across rural and tribal areas of our country, one can find many varieties of millets, beans, legumes, tubers, wild fruits and green leafy vegetables, which the urban Indian is hardly aware of. The Nyishi and Apatani tribal communities in the State are knowledgeable about the nutritional and medicinal properties of many of these local plants.
A senior government official however warned of the rapid rate at which agrobiodiversity was disappearing in northeast India, mirroring the global rise in the rate of species extinction. Traditional knowledge about the medicinal and nutritional properties of these foods, as well as the culinary practices of tribal communities are probably going extinct at the same pace.
India's biodiversity
India covers about 2% of global land area, but harbours nearly 8% of global biodiversity. It is ranked as one of 17 'megadiverse' countries of the world; contains sections of four of the 36 global biodiversity 'hotspots;' and is one of just eight centres of global food-crop diversity. Natural services from India's diverse forests are valued at over ₹130 trillion a year, and local ecosystem services sustain livelihoods of a vast majority of the rural population.
However, continuous decline in our natural assets reduces India's GDP and hinders sustainable development. Yet, biodiversity and its potential to increase human well-being remain largely unexplored.
Global food systems are dominated by three crops — rice, wheat, and maize — which provide over 50% of the world's plant-based calories. This concentration and loss of biodiversity comes at a heavy price, causing nutritional imbalances, and vulnerability to climate shocks. Non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and obesity are rising globally, and despite technological advances in agriculture that have enabled unprecedented gains in productivity, the benefits have not been equitably distributed, as the resilience of our food systems comes under threat.
For long we have ignored locally grown crops such as small millets, buckwheat, amaranth, jackfruit, yams and tubers, and indigenous legumes that remain classified as Neglected and Underutilized Species (NUS) in favour of popular commercial crops. The NUS, also known as orphan crops, are now being referred to as opportunity crops because they are nutritionally dense, climate-resilient, and adapted to local environments.
Crops and communities
Orphan (or Opportunity) crops have always been embedded in local culinary traditions, often linked with cultural identity and ecological knowledge. The community of Kolli hills (Eastern Ghats of Tamil Nadu) preferred growing locally adapted millets. Over three decades, farmers have moved to cultivating cash crops such as cassava, coffee, and pepper, resulting in a decline of agrobiodiversity. The M.S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) has been working with agricultural communities here for over 20 years, to prevent the erosion of millet crop diversity in the region through participatory research and empowering farmers' groups. These interventions have enabled a community of farmers, especially women, to document traditional knowledge and best practices, while improving the vitality of the soil, diversifying crop production, improving local processing and value addition, leading to increasing income.
India's action plan under the UN-declared International Year of Millets and Shree Anna Yojana was focused on strategies to enhance production and productivity, consumption, export, strengthening value chains, branding, creating awareness for health benefits and more. Many States have their own Millet Missions. In the Koraput district of Odisha, we have worked closely with the Odisha Millet Mission in supporting community-led millet revival from seed to consumption. While the focus nationally has been on ragi, jowar and bajra, the next step should be to expand the State missions to cover a variety of minor millets and to include them in the Public Distribution System.
More than five decades ago, Professor M.S. Swaminathan envisioned an Evergreen Revolution — that is rooted not in chemical intensification but in restoring ecological balance and nutrition security. The future of food is diverse and nutritious. To bring these forgotten foods back to the table is also to put our cultural identity and ecological knowledge at the forefront of the climate crisis — for people, planet, and its posterity.
An interdisciplinary science
Today, a new biodiversity science is emerging across the globe, which India can leverage, given its Human Resources and scientific infrastructure. Furthermore, this interdisciplinary science will help us meet our most pressing challenges in sustainable use of India's unique biodiversity, for agriculture and food production, health and nutrition, climate change and disaster risk management, bio-economy, and providing a variety of jobs to meet the needs of 1.4 billion people.
India could become a global leader in conservation and sustainable use of natural resources leading to better health and human well-being. Could we aim for an era of 'Biohappiness', as presciently envisioned by M.S. Swaminathan?
Dr. Soumya Swaminathan is Chairperson of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation. Dr. E.D. Israel Oliver King is Director, Biodiversity, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation