 Seed is a living material. Crop seed is a living material. To keep this living material in good condition up to the next rice season, there are a series of activities called seed preservation. More than 95% of rice seed in Bangladesh is retained by farmers for sowing the following year. Storing seed is the responsibility of women here. That's why women members of the family must know the reasons why seed quality deteriorates during storage and how this can be overcome. The quality of seed during storage, many depends on moisture content. If the seed is not properly dried before storage, it becomes soft, hot and moist and this will affect the level of disease and insect infestation. This in turn will cause seed quality to deteriorate. Using poor quality seed will give poor yields in the following crop season. Based on hard real-life experience, the women of Maria Village in the Majira-Apazilla of Boghra district have devised some very effective techniques for seed preservation. Let us learn from some of these innovative women. We select good panicles in the field and harvest them separately. We then thresh them and then dry them on the table. We then store the seed in a container placed on a table. We test the dryness of the seeds by biting them with our teeth. We wash, clean and dry the seed container before using it for storage. So the container is free from insects and their eggs. The women in our village use plastic pots, tin containers and drums as seed containers. In addition, painted earthen pots are widely used for seed storage. Keeping seed in good quality helps us in reducing the seed rate needed for the next crop. Some women in Maria Village paint their earthen pots with varnish or tar on both the inside and outside to prevent the passage of air through the container. Others use used cooking oil instead of paint. They also know that air can pass not only through the lid but also through the capillary holes in an earthen pot and destroy the seed quality. If there's still some empty space in the seed container, some women of Maria Village use an amazing technique from the past. They put a burning candle inside the container and then they cover the container with the lid. They know the candle will burn until there's no oxygen in the air left. So in this way any insects inside the container will die. After proper drying and resting, the seeds are placed in a container which is filled right up to the top. If there's not enough rice, some puffed rice or dried sand can be used to fill up the airspace. It's also common in our village before pouring seeds in the container, we put dry Bishkatali leaves at the bottom and at the top of the seed. As well as Bishkatali leaves we use dry neem leaves, tobacco leaves or naphthalene inside the container and then tightly close the lid. These help a lot in controlling insects. If you keep the seed container on the ground, very quickly the seed absorbs moisture from the soil and it becomes mouldy and discoloured. That's why we keep seed containers somewhere off the ground. It prevents mouldiness and minimises insects and the seed also looks bright and clean. So what have we learnt from the innovative women from Muria Village? We've learnt that we need to select healthy panicles. Only clean and sorted seeds should be stored. Before storing seed we need to clean, wash and dry the container. We should put seed right up to the top of the container. If there's insufficient seed then properly dried sand or puffed rice should be used to fill up the airspace. The container lid must be completely sealed to make it fully airtight. Additives like Bishkatali, dried neem leaf, tobacco leaf or naphthalene will help in controlling storage insects. If the container is an earthen pot, tar, paint or use cooking oil can be used to paint both the outside and inside of the pot to make it fully airtight. We should always keep the seed container above the ground. We must remember, properly preserved seed is good seed and good seed means a good crop.