A thirteen-year-old girl from Odisha’s Koraput district, Harsita Priyadarshini Mohanty, was awarded the 2025 International Young Eco-Hero Award on August 11 for setting up a seed bank aimed at preserving indigenous rice and millet varieties that are becoming increasingly rare.
Mohanty was awarded the Eco-Hero Award alongside eight others by Action for Nature, a U.S. based non-profit that works with young people across the world to care for the environment. “While leaders worldwide struggle to protect the environment, global youth activists constantly remind us that transformative change often starts small. From Burundi to San Antonio, Texas, this year’s Eco-Heroes are another powerful reminder that the future of our planet is in good hands,” said Beryl Kay, president of Action for Nature, in a statement.
Coming in second place, the award recognised Mohanty’s “self-funded efforts and deep commitment to sustainable farming.” In 2023, Mohanty set up the Harsita Priyadarshini Indigenous Seed and Grain Bank, providing local farmers with two kilograms of indigenous rice and millet varieties for free. After cultivation, farmers replenish the bank by “paying back” four kilograms of seeds. According to Action for Nature, 20 farmers benefitted in 2023 and 60 farmers in 2024.
“Earlier, in my native [place], there were 2,000 plus paddy seeds that could be found. But today due to global warming and climate change only 30 to 50 varieties can be found. Due to commercial development, farmers are interested in farming hybrid seeds and not indigenous seeds,” said Mohanty in a video presentation, adding, “After seeing this, I started my project to conserve indigenous seeds.” The bank preserves 180 varieties of paddy, 60 varieties of millet, and other types of “forgotten foods.”
Mohanty was inspired by Kamala Pujari, a tribal woman from the same district who won the Padma Shri in 2019 for conserving over a 100 varieties of paddy. “Compared to other young people I have worked with, Harshita is exceptionally motivated, focused, and consistent in her environmental work. She is also a natural leader and inspires others to act,” Jagannath Mishra, chairperson of the Koraput-based NGO Ekta, told Action for Nature.
Other winners of the prize – aged between 11 and 16 – won for their contributions to recycling and waste management, environmental advocacy, and restoring river banks, among other activities. The winners will present their work at a virtual event in San Francisco on September 13.
Banner image: Finger millets. Representative image by Dinesh Valke via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0).
