Odisha has emerged as one of the biggest state-level beneficiaries of the latest Access and Benefit-Sharing (ABS) disbursement by the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA). The state has received ₹59,01,641 — about ₹59.02 lakh — ranking fourth among all States and Union Territories in a nationwide release of ₹5.68 crore.
The money comes from commercial utilisation of three everyday vegetables that Odisha farmers grow in large volumes: okra (bhindi), cucumber and watermelon, along with certain microbial and agricultural biological resources. Gujarat topped the list with ₹88.79 lakh, followed by West Bengal (₹78.09 lakh) and Madhya Pradesh (₹64.90 lakh). Odisha’s share is larger than Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. “Others” (remaining states and UTs) together received ₹87.78 lakh. The grand total released is ₹5,68,18,277.
The largest single component is okra. Nunhems India Pvt. Ltd. paid ABS on 139 varieties and 28 hybrids; NBA released ₹3.51 crore of that money to 32 State Biodiversity Boards and UT Biodiversity Councils. Watermelon (662 varieties and 15 hybrids) and cucumber (1,009 varieties and 14 hybrids) were accessed from markets and traders by Nunhems, East-West Seeds India and Bayer Science and Innovation. Because the material could not be traced back to named farmers or a single village, an expert committee recommended — and the Authority approved — distributing the beneficiary share according to where these crops are actually cultivated. Odisha’s strong production base in ladyfinger (roughly 9.4 per cent of India’s output), watermelon (about 8.6 per cent) and cucumber explains its high ranking.
A smaller amount also went to CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory’s National Culture Collection of Industrial Microorganisms in Pune from an ABS payment by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd.
What the money can do in Odisha
The Odisha Biodiversity Board will spend the funds under Section 32 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. Permitted uses include:
- updating People’s Biodiversity Registers in villages and urban local bodies
- in-situ and ex-situ conservation of biological resources
- restoration of degraded ecosystems
- protection of wild relatives of cultivated plants
- strengthening Biodiversity Heritage Sites such as Mandasaru, Mahendragiri, Gandhamardan and Gupteswar
- building and maintaining biodiversity databases
- capacity-building of Biodiversity Management Committees
- research and community livelihood activities linked to conservation
This is not a one-off windfall. Odisha has featured regularly in recent NBA releases — rice ABS earlier this month, cotton last month, earlier vegetable packages, and Red Sanders conservation support for the Forest Department. With Sunday’s tranche, NBA’s cumulative ABS disbursements have crossed ₹191 crore nationwide.
For a state that harbours Similipal, Bhitarkanika, Chilika, rich tribal agrobiodiversity and hundreds of local vegetable landraces, the ABS mechanism is beginning to convert commercial use of Indian germplasm into a steady conservation budget.
The next test will be how quickly the Board and local BMCs convert the ₹59 lakh into visible work on the ground — updated registers, protected wild relatives of bhindi and watermelon, and livelihood support for the communities who have kept these resources alive.
