CREATE’s 19th Annual Paddy Festival Begins in Sitlingi, Empowering Tribal Farmers of Dharmapuri
On 11th June 2025, CREATE’s 19th Annual Paddy Festival was inaugurated in Sitlingi, Dharmapuri District, in collaboration with SOFA (Sitlingi Organic Farmers Association). This marks the first time CREATE has organized the Paddy Festival in Dharmapuri district, directly benefiting the small and marginal tribal farmers of the Sitlingi Valley.
SOFA is one of the leading Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) in Tamil Nadu, comprising 700 members from 42 tribal hamlets under the Sitlingi Panchayat. Since 2008, SOFA has been facilitating organic millet-based production, processing, value addition, certification, and marketing. In addition to millets, SOFA farmers also cultivate paddy and had expressed the need for traditional paddy seeds suited to their conditions.
In response, CREATE supported them by supplying seven traditional paddy varieties to 150 farmers for distribution at the festival:
Nattu Ponni, Karung Kuruvai, Thuyamalli, Mappillai Samba, Poongar, Black Kavuni, and Illuppaipoo Samba.
Prof. Dr. P. Duraisingam, Chairman of CREATE, provided an overview of CREATE’s journey, highlighting its long-standing work in reviving traditional paddy varieties through the Save Our Rice Campaign. He emphasized that over the past 19 years, CREATE has organized Paddy Festivals reaching over 1,50,000 farmers across Tamil Nadu and has contributed to the revival of 200 traditional varieties.
Mr. K. Suresh Kanna, Project Director of CREATE, highlighted the organization’s current focus on strengthening farmers’ skills in quality seed production, maintaining Rice Diversity Blocks across Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka, and conducting scientific testing of traditional paddy varieties at NIFTEM-T. He also shared plans to engage consumer influencers and present research findings to policymakers to promote traditional and organic rice cultivation.
Mr. Egambaram, an expert in organic farming, conducted a session on preparation and application of organic inputs, while Mr. Balaraman, an RDB farmer from Thiruvannamalai, shared his experience in cultivating traditional paddy varieties. He stressed the importance of the “return two-fold” seed-sharing system, which ensures seed availability for a larger number of farmers in the following season.
Mr. Reji, founder of the Sitlingi Tribal Health Hospital, and Mr. Manjunath, Coordinator of SOFA, also participated in the event and distributed seeds to the farmers.
Earlier in the day, the CREATE team visited SOFA’s facilities, interacted with staff, and learned about their work in organic certification, as well as their processing, production, and packaging units.
