Efforts will be made to add value to tubers and bring them into the mainstream from the outback of tribal hamlets. A working group will also explore the potential of tuber cultivation as a source of alternative income for farmers, besides ensuring food security for them. This was decided at the first-ever two-day tuber mela, which ended in the city on Sunday.

The University of Horticultural Sciences, Bagalkot, Sahaja Samrudha, an NGO working to promote indigenous agricultural crops and methods, and a few other like-minded organisations have resolved to work on bringing about value addition to tubers.

Krishnaprasad of Sahaja Samrudha said there was a need to stress the importance of tubers, whose cultivation is now confined to villages and tribal hamlets. Tuber has financial benefits as well because it does not need chemicals and pesticides and can be cultivated using intercropping, he said.

The potential of tubers has never been fully harnessed though it has always been part of the indigenous knowledge system of tribals. Tribal women are aware of its cultivation and benefits, but unless this knowledge is acknowledged as significant, it cannot be brought into the mainstream, said L. Channaraj ,who works with tribals through People’s Tree in H.D. Kote. He said there is a kind of an “apartheid” associated with tuber cultivation and consumption, and this has to be obliterated, much like how ragi has been popularised in recent years.

About 25 groups engaged in the cultivation of tubers were part of the mela. N.M. Shaji from Mananthavady in Kerala, who cultivates nearly 200 varieties of tubers, had put up a display of around 50. The mela evoked good response from the public as well. There was an interactive session by cultivators and representatives of the Horticulture Department.