Indian Landrace Exchange
More actions
| Indian Landrace Exchange | |
|---|---|
| Type | Cannabis seed collecting group |
| Website | indianlandraceexchange.com |
| Founded | 2015 (according to Seeds Here Now)
|
| Focus | Seed of cannabis lines from South, Central and Southeast Asia, documented on its website and sold through other seed companies |
The Indian Landrace Exchange is a group that says it collects cannabis seed in India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nepal and Southeast Asia and passes it to seed companies for sale. It describes itself as "a collective of Indigenous frontline farmers, seed collectors, and preservationists".[1] Its website publishes a "genetic library" of 35 entries, one for each line it holds, and accounts of its collecting tours.[2] The seed database SeedFinder lists 67 lines under the group's name.[3]
History
In 2021 the cannabis journalist David Bienenstock interviewed Deepak Chaudhary, known on Instagram as @irrazinig, for Leafly. Leafly described him as "the cannabis landrace conservationist who helped found the Indian Landrace Exchange and continues to coordinate the group’s efforts". Chaudhary said that his first trip was to Malana in 2016, and that he went next to Kashmir, then to Southeast Asia and Pakistan.[4] The American seed shop Seeds Here Now, which sells the group's seed, says that the group was co-founded in 2015 and that the team works from Chiang Mai in Thailand.[5] The group's website links to the @irrazinig account.[1] The oldest article on the site is dated February 2019;[6] the entries of the genetic library were posted in June and July 2021.[2]
The group calls its collecting trips projects and publishes a tour book for each. According to its tour book, the Durand Line Project 2020 covered farms in the Afghan provinces of Zabul, Paktika, Kandahar and Ghazni on two tours between late August and December 2020.[7] In February 2021 a member of the growers' forum Overgrow wrote that the group would release "50 packs that will contain 12 isolated strains from South/South East Afghanistan".[8] The Afghan Project, its next tour of Afghanistan, ran from the sowing in May 2022 to the harvest in November 2022. Its stated aim was "to document the cannabis cultivation scene in Afghanistan post the Taliban takeover in 2021"; the book describes selections made at Maruf and Daman in Kandahar province and at Markaz Baboos in Logar.[9] Other books cover the valleys of Malana in Himachal Pradesh (2020), the Hindu Kush (2021) and north-east and eastern India (2022).[10][11][12]
Lines and their stated origins
The genetic library sorts its entries into climate zones and gives a page of description to most of them. Most are from India: Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha in the south and east, Suratgarh in Rajasthan, Manipur, Assam and Kalimpong in the north-east, Kashmir, the Malana and Parvati valleys of Himachal Pradesh and Chamoli district in Uttarakhand. The others come from Pakistan (Balochistan, Swabi in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Neelum district of Pakistani-administered Kashmir), Afghanistan (Mazar-i-Sharif and Andarab), Nepal, Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.[2]
A few entries say when and how the seed was obtained. Kerala Gold was "Collected from Idukki District, Kerala through a Ganja Farmer in 2014";[13] the Andhra Bhang was collected at Visakhapatnam "from dried flowers sample in 2016";[14] Orissa Gold came in 2016 from a farmer near the border of Andhra Pradesh and Odisha;[15] and the Nagarkot line was "collected in Dec 2016 at Nagarkot village, Nepal from the undomesticated population".[16] The entry for Idukki Gold calls it "an extinct variety" and describes it from the accounts of people who smoked it.[17] The Wailing Valley entry places the valley "7 kms east of the Malana village".[18]
Seeds Here Now's account of the group's 2025 release lists 10 lines from four places: Chitral Valley and the Kalash Valley in Chitral, Nawa in Ghazni, Maruf in Kandahar and Quetta in Balochistan.[5]
How the seed is sold
Chaudhary told Leafly that the information on the lines is free on the group's website and that "I basically work with a few selected seed banks, which you can find on my Instagram page".[4] Seeds Here Now sells the lines in the United States.[5] In February 2026 a member of the Swiss forum grower.ch noted that many of the lines could now be bought inside the European Union from ACE Seeds and from Mandala Seeds.[19] The online shop Full Power Selections sells the group's books and many of the lines in its genetic library.[10]
The group describes its work as collection, documentation, preservation, selection and improvement.[1] Chaudhary told Leafly that the group forms "small collectives amongst the indigenous farmers", returns each year to take samples from their fields and pays them a share of seed sales. He gave the example of a grower in Mastung, Balochistan, for whom "a couple of seed sales" paid for a well.[4]
Grow reports and reproductions
The breeder MassMedicalStrains released a Swabi Pakistani line on 30 October 2020 from seed it said was "gifted to me by Irrazin of Indian Landrace Exchange".[20] Growers on Rollitup reported growing the group's Balochistan and Manipur lines from December 2020.[21] In April 2021 one reported that a pack of the Cambodian line "looks to have no viable seeds".[22] In 2022 another member wrote that a different breeder had made a reproduction of the group's Maruf Black selection.[23]
Accessions
Accessions recording the Indian Landrace Exchange as their seed storage location.
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "IndianLandraceExchange – Landrace Strains Genetics". Indian Landrace Exchange. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Genetic Library". Indian Landrace Exchange. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ "Indian Landrace Exchange Cannabis Strains". SeedFinder. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Bienenstock, David (26 April 2021). "Grow landrace cannabis strains with 'fair trade' seeds from the source". Leafly. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Bean, James (3 July 2025). "Inside the Indian Landrace Exchange: Hunting Rare Cannabis Genetics in the Wild". Seeds Here Now. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ "Sheelavathi". Indian Landrace Exchange. 14 February 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ "DurandLineProject_2020". Indian Landrace Exchange. 15 June 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ District_Flora (3 February 2021). "Calling preservationist!". Overgrow. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ "TAP22". Indian Landrace Exchange. 20 July 2023. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "NorthWestern Himalayas-I (Himachal Pradesh), Paperback". FullPower Selections. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ "Norpak 21, Paperback". FullPower Selections. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ "North East and East of India, Paperback". FullPower Selections. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ "Kerala Gold". Indian Landrace Exchange. 25 June 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ "Andhra Bhang". Indian Landrace Exchange. 14 June 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ "Orissa Gold". Indian Landrace Exchange. 14 June 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ "Nepali (Nagarkot)". Indian Landrace Exchange. 25 June 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ "Idukki Gold". Indian Landrace Exchange. 14 June 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ "Wailing Valley". Indian Landrace Exchange. 21 June 2021. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Thallian (24 February 2026). "Full Power Selections Breeder". grower.ch (in Deutsch). Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ "Swabi Pakistani (MassMedicalStrains)". SeedFinder. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ The Mantis (13 December 2020). "Full Power Selections - Indian Landrace Exchange - Irrizinig". Rollitup. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ yesum (29 April 2021). "Full Power Selections - Indian Landrace Exchange - Irrizinig". Rollitup. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
- ↑ Rurumo (2 September 2022). "Full Power Selections - Indian Landrace Exchange - Irrizinig". Rollitup. Retrieved 21 October 2026.