Cheruvayal Raman preserves fifty traditional rice varieties in Kerala

Cheruvayal Raman, a Kurichya tribal farmer, saved more than fifty traditional rice varieties in the Wayanad district of Kerala, India.

He inherited ancestral land and a small collection of native seeds at age seventeen. While nearby farmers switched to high-yield commercial seeds and chemical fertilizers in the late 1970s, Raman chose to maintain traditional crops that resisted local pests, droughts, and floods. Raman transformed his fields into a living archive where he planted diverse strains such as Gandhakasala and Njavara.

He argued that seeds stay alive only when planted in soil each year. To preserve the grains, he harvested each variety separately and stored them in mud-walled rooms using straw baskets and bamboo containers to keep them viable without electricity. He distributed these seeds for free to researchers and farmers across South India on the condition that they farmed organically and returned an equal amount of new seed to his collection.

This system allowed him to share his work without seeking profit. Raman received the Padma Shri in 2023 for his work in agrobiodiversity and lived in his fields until he passed away in October 2026 at age 74.