Class VII girl collects rare species of foodgrains in Odisha’s Jeypore; wins hearts

Jeypore: A wide variety of rare foodgrain species collected by a Class VII student Harshita Priyadarshini Mohanty from Jeypore has inspired many youngsters in the State. Harshita possesses more than 150 extincting country-grown species of paddy, 53 species of finger millet and seven of pearl millet.

A student of an English medium school here, Harshita always wanted to stand out than to follow the crowd right from her childhood days. Apart from collecting the extincting foodgrain species, she has also collected postage stamps and coins of several countries and tribal ornaments, a source said.

The Class VII student has formed ‘Harshita Priyadarshini Science Club’ and inducted many of her friends and local farmers into it. Through the club, she provides seeds of rare and country-grown foodgrains for cultivation free of charge, through her ‘foodgrain and seed bank’ functional under the club.

Harshita is keen in educating other children of her age group, through her philatelic collection.

“I am being supported in this regard by my school teachers, agricultural scientist Shankar Patnaik, social activist Jagannath Mishra, Padma Shri Kamala Pujari, environmentalist Pradip Kumar Mohanty, and my family members. I will work on biodiversity in the future,” the highly-motivated girl expressed.

“Presently, I have the extincting species of paddy like ‘Kalajeera’, ‘Chatia Naki’, ‘Baigan Manji’, ‘Umuria Chudi’, ‘Assam Chudi’, ‘Nadia Bhoga’, ‘Tulasi Bhoga’, ‘Kalabati’, ‘Radha Ballav’, ‘Badshah’, ‘Pathan Goda’, ‘Machha Kanta’, ‘Hati Danta’, ‘Jugal Bandi’, ‘Burma Rice’, ‘Siklala Koli’, ‘Seeta Bhoga’, ‘Osha Bali’, ‘Mahula Kunchi’, ‘Gatia’, ‘Kuji’, ‘Sindhi Koli’, ‘Golki Mochhi’, ‘Lakati Mochhi’, ‘Ladni’, ‘Dubaraj’, ‘Haldi Ganthi’, ‘Katara’ and ‘Kasturi’, including many more. I have given free seeds to about 20 local farmers through my ‘foodgrain and seed bank’,” the young girl stated speaking about her collections.