Editor's Note: Chamnibai and thousands of women around India save seeds locally like they save stories: learn from their parents, sow them every season, store them at home and pass them on to their children ensuring survival, diversity and evolutionary adapatations. Svalbard seed vault in Norway is a centralized seed storage facility that contains the seeds of nearly 4,000 plant species – more than 720,000 individual plastic-sheathed samples from around the world. You want to bet on unity in diversity or diversity in unity? --Ragu & Nisha

“I remember the time our village was hit by a flood,” Chamnibai recollected. “It was 1973, and all the houses in the village were ruined. All our things were destroyed, but I was most concerned about our seeds. That was my priority, and those are the seeds I have now. They are the most important part of a farmer’s life.”

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Svalbard Global Seed Vault was built to be disaster-proof: 130 metres up the mountain in case of sea-level rise, earthquake resistant, and with a natural insulation of permafrost to ensure the contents were kept frozen for decades to come... Those who have worked with farmers in the field, especially in developing countries, which contain by far the greatest variety of plants, say that diversity cannot be boxed up and saved in a single container – no matter how secure it may be. Crops are always changing, pests and diseases are always adapting, and global warming will bring additional challenges that remain as yet unforeseen. In a perfect world, the solution would be as diverse and dynamic as plant life itself.

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Be The Change Idea

Do we favour Global or Local solution? How about having the Chamnibai's of the world visit the Svalbard vault? What would they exchange? What could they? Perhaps such meetings in every domain will help bridge the micro and macro chasms.