Click Here For Written Result : Civil Services (Preliminary) Examination, 2024

News Excerpt: 

The internally displaced tribal families in Godavari Valley continue to practice the ‘deda’ method to preserve seeds of pulses and food crops which were handed over to them by their ancestors in Chhattisgarh.

More about News:

• Muria tribes who migrated from Chhattisgarh and settled in the dense forests of the Godavari Valley, 
• They are still practicing ‘deda’, a traditional method of preserving seeds that his ancestors handed over to his family. 
• All the 70 families in Chukkalapadu habitation in Chintoor Agency in Alluri Sitharama Raju district continue to practice the deda method, wherein the seeds are preserved in leaves and packed almost airtight to look like boulders from a distance. 
• The packaged seeds are, in turn, woven with Siali leaf (Bauhinia vahlii), which is locally known as ‘addakulu’ to make the deda.
• A deda has three layers.
• In the first layer, wood ash is spread inside the Siali leaves. 
• Later, the ash is covered with lemon leaves to form a casing, 
• lastly, the seeds are preserved inside the casing and sealed,
• The deda method guarantees protection of seed from pests and worms. 
• The stored seeds can be used for cultivation for up to five years. but tribes prefer to preserve them for up to three years. 
• They have been preserving the seeds of pulses such as green gram, red gram, black gram, and beans.
• The Muria tribes migrated from Chhattisgarh's Sukma district and settled in the Godavari valley regions of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, 
• They are forming Internal Displaced People (IDP) habitations.

Pulses Cultivation:

• The Muria tribes practice small-scale farming of pulses and other crops for their own food security, rarely selling their produce commercially.
  • The Murias would rarely sell their farm produce in the weekly shandies as they did not shift to commercial cultivation of any crop.
  • In the habitations of the IDP, the Murias are engaged in small-scale farming as expansion or development of cultivable land is strictly prohibited in the reserve forest covers. 

• The Murias would mostly go for mixed crops on small-scale holdings which are below half-acre. 

• • Maize and pulses are the major crops, and dependence on paddy is very low.

• Paddy is grown through the direct-sowing method
• Murias food festival in Chintoor Agency, in which they showcased 51 authentic delicacies.