00:12Harshita Priyadarshini Mohanty is not a typical 14-year-old girl.
00:16While most students her age think about homework and their phones after school,
00:21Harshita spends her time thinking about seats.
00:25This class 9 student from Koraput district in Odisha has taken up a mission to protect
00:32indigenous seeds and revive traditional farming practices that are slowly disappearing.
00:38Over the past 3 years, Harshita has collected hundreds of varieties of traditional grains
00:44and rice.
00:45Because of her work, people in the region now call her the seed girl.
00:51In 2023, she started the Harshita Priyadarshini Sheet and Grain Bank.
00:59Today, it has an impressive collection, including 230 varieties of indigenous grain seeds,
01:0680 varieties of traditional ragi, 6 varieties of shoragum, and 12 varieties of other traditional
01:12grains.
01:14Her initiative works on a simple system called Loan for Exchange.
01:20Farmers receive 2 kg of seeds and after harvest, they return 4 kg, allowing the seed bank to
01:28grow continuously.
01:30In 2024, around 60 farmers joined the project, including 30 women.
01:36By 2025, the number grew to 180 farmers, with nearly 80% being women.
01:43Harshita says she was inspired by Padma Shri avadi Kamala Pujari, a tribal farmer known for protecting
01:50indigenous seeds.
01:53Since then, she has been traveling to villages with her father, learning from farmers and encouraging
01:59communities to return to traditional crops.
02:02For many villages, Harshita's small effort is helping protect farming traditions, biodiversity,
02:09and the future of food, one seed at a time.
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