Rahibai Soma Popere Conferred With Padma Shri: All You Need To Know About The Seed Mother

Who is Rahibai Soma Popere? Fondly called beej mata or seed mother, Rahibai has been conferred with Padma Shri award this year for her contribution in the field of agriculture. Padma Shri is the country’s fourth-highest civilian national award. Rahibai is a tribal farmer from Mahadeo Koli. It is a tribal community from Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra.

President Kovind presents Padma Shri to Smt. Rahibai Soma Popere for Agriculture. Popularly known as 'Seed Mother', she is a tribal farmer from Mahadeo Koli, Tribal community from Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. pic.twitter.com/IKFeaROoVQ

— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) November 8, 2021

Here's everything you should know about her.

• Rahibai Soma Popere is a resident of Kombhalne village located in Ahmednagar’s Akola tehsil.
• She was born in 1964. She couldn't attend school due to poverty and started working in agricultural labour and cow rearing to supplement her family income.  They were totally dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.
• She got married to Soma Popere when she was only 17-years-old. He was also uneducated like her, as per report.
• She learned about agrobiodiversity, wild food resources, and traditional culture by practice and experience without going to school.
• Through her experiences, she learnt that preserving agro-biodiversity and wild food resources is important to achieve the goal of national security.
• 20 years ago, she started using her childhood knowledge to prepare indigenous seeds and started delivering them to others.
• Due to such initiatives, people started calling her beej mata.
• Rahibai hasn't confined herself to her village only. She has travelled across Maharashtra and beyond to conserve indigenous seeds.
• A house-hoarding perennial kitchen garden and water harvesting structures are also two of her initiatives.
• Besides this, she has also taken the onus of teaching farmers and students about crop selection, soil fertility practises, and pest management on her. Around 3500 farmers have been trained by her.

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