While the world raced toward high-yield crops, Debal Deb took the road less traveled, literally. He journeyed across rural India, collecting native rice seeds that were on the brink of extinction, from Karnataka, Kerala, TamilNadu, AndhraPradesh, Odisha, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, etc. At Basudha, Odisha, his living seed bank, over 1,400 indigenous rice varieties are now thriving. Some of these are drought-resistant, others flood-tolerant and all rooted in tradition. This isn’t just about rice.