New Delhi, October 28: Half a century ago, India was home to as many as 100,000 rice varieties, but with high-yield hybrid crops taking over the market, farmers are encouraged to choose more resistant varieties. It is a no-brainer that private seed companies are not interested in inbred seed research and focus almost exclusively on hybrids as these cannot be reused by farmers like other seeds and have to be procured each season from the developer.
But what is surprising is that in all this madness for profit, two young engineers – Ishan Pasrija (27) and Darshan Doreswamy (30) are trying to give a new life to indigenous varieties. These two professionals are Buddha Fellows under a fellowship programme run by an NGO called Srijan. Working in rural hinterlands of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, the two bright minds have taken up the challenging task of convincing farmers to adopt varieties that have long been forgotten.
“We are trying to revive the cultivation of the indigenous varieties of paddy, which the farmers had stopped cultivating roughly two decades ago. But it’s easier said than done, because hybrid paddy is all that farmers cultivate and it’s quite difficult to convince to grow something which is harder to grow and also yields less,” Ishan, an IIT Delhi alumnus, told a news website.
A hard task
Both Ishan and Darshan had comfortable, cushy corporate jobs, but they left their professional perks to make a real difference to the lives of farmers. “Agriculture is anyways not lucrative anymore. People barely make ends meet and on the top of that people have the smaller land holding. But we have been making field visits for the last two months and have spoken to a number of farmers about cultivating the indigenous crops. All of them listen to us, but it’s quite hard to convince,” said Darshan, who is an alumnus of IIM Kashipur.
Is it economically viable?
Unless cultivating crops become economically viable, farmers aren’t going to cultivate indigenous paddy varieties as these are costly. “In order to make the cultivation of indigenous varieties economically viable for farmers, we are putting in all our efforts. Unless we do it ourselves, it’s very hard to convince farmers,” said Ishan, who was the manager for Emami in east Bihar before leaving his job and taking up this fellowship. But can traditional varieties alone meet the country’s growing food needs? The Planning Commission estimates that India requires 122.1 million tonnes of milled rice by 2020 to meet food security norms. At the existing 1.34 per cent rate of growth India can hope to produce no more than 106 million tonnes.
Roping in partners
Most of the indigenous varieties of paddy have medicinal qualities and there are varieties which can be consumed by patients of diabetes who otherwise are advised not to eat rice.
“Though it’s very hard to approach the market and make a place for indigenous rice, we have approached doctors at AIIMS and Medanta in Delhi and have asked to prescribe indigenous rice varieties as the food alternative to patients especially the diabetes patients. It’s all in very initial stage and will take time,” added Ishan.
The two have been meeting farmers in both the states for the last two months and have had some interesting sessions. We have spoken to over 200 farmers and most of them have shown interest in whatever we have shared with them.
