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Collecting seeds in her mud-walled farmhouse home in central India has pushed Laheri Bai to become a farming celebrity. Earlier this year, after Narendra Modi, the prime minister, tweeted he was “proud” of Bai and the 150 varieties she had preserved, it prompted the Indian media to call her the country’s “millet ambassador”.
Bai and her 1.2 hectares (3 acres) in the east of Madhya Pradesh state have become a symbol of a government policy to promote old, traditional grains that will prove sustainable in the face of climate breakdown.
The 27-year-old Bai follows the practices that used to be common in this area, bunching together different types of mota anaj, or millet, to hang to dry in neat rows from the rafters in the ceiling.
Her seed bank, the Bewar Beej Bhandar, takes up one of the two rooms of the house in Silpidi village she shares with her parents Sukhram Paria, 80, and Chaiti Bai, 70, and their cat. Bai has no formal education but a deep knowledge of millet varieties, nutrition and food security passed down through generations.
Her grandmother taught her to collect and preserve disappearing local varieties used in Bewar farming, an ancient method of shifting cultivation practised in the uplands to grow millet, maize and legumes in a single plot.
Bai says her motivation came from a realisation “that our ancestors lived healthy, long lives compared with our generation because they ate millet”, though she adds: “In the 1990s, people started eating subsidised rice and wheat, and forgot good old millet. I think this has made us unhealthy and prone to diseases.”
India is the largest producer and second-largest exporter of millet – a highly nutritious, gluten-free grain that can grow in harsh conditions. Millet has been a staple food in many regions of India for thousands of years, and eaten as porridge, roti flatbread, dosa pancakes and with lentils in khichdi. However, the “green revolution” that started in the 1960s saw the production of millet fall as wheat and rice gained prominence.
Bai’s moment in the limelight is part of a wider effort by the government to increase the production and consumption of millet. The UN agency for agriculture has even named 2023 the International Year of Millets to promote the grain as a sustainable contender for climate-crisis mitigation in food systems. Earlier this year, there was a millet conference in Delhi where Indian exhibitors met international buyers.
Bai is from the Baiga, an Indigenous community from the states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Her village is in Baigachak – land reserved for the Baiga by the British Raj. Today, Baiga are classified as one of the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups of India due to the declining population of the ethnic group: the 2011 census registered 552,495 Baiga.
When millet is harvested in January and February, Bai exchanges her seeds, known for their quality, with farmers in her village and surrounding areas. “It’s a two-way process. Where, if I give a kilo of millet seeds, I will get 1.5kg of the same or different variety of millet seeds,” she says. In 2022, Bai distributed seeds to about 350 farmers across 25 villages in the district.
Ranmati Bai (no relation), who also lives in Silpidi, is a member of Sama Salhar Beej Samiti, a cooperative of 10 Baiga women. She says: “Though we all exchange and collect seeds for our bewar, Laheri decided to conserve and make a seed bank for the future. This has made her famous today.”
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Laheri Bai has become a role model, inspiring 40 other tribal women to start their own seed banks in other districts, according to Naresh Biswas, who works for Nirman, a sustainable development organisation.
“Most tribal families living in the reserve have been millet cultivators and consumers for centuries, if not more,” says Biswas.
In his book, Bewar Swaraj, Biswas says the Baiga collect wild and cultivated seeds from trees and plants found in the forests around their settlements for their own consumption, as well as for sale.
He adds that diabetes and heart diseases were not prevalent among the tribe in days gone by, but have become so now – although there is no official data to support his claims.
Laheri Bai begins her day with dal or curry made from kodo (small millet) or kutki (Indian cow grass millet). “In the summer, my favourite drink is pej, a porridge-like dish made of kodo,” she says.
As she checks the seeds in their handmade clay containers with the varieties painted on them, her cat comes and rubs up against her red-and-white sari. She is the keeper of the seeds, but the cat is the guard.
“My cat is the natural guardian of the seed bank; he protects them from the rats that often come in here,” she says with a smile.
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