WAYANAD RICE FESTIVAL – ENVIRONMENT
News: Wayanad
rice festival promotes climate-resilient crops
What's in the news?
● At
a time when climate vagaries are posing a serious threat to farming in the
country, a Kerala-based organization
named THANAL has embarked on a unique conservation experiment, planting 300 climate-resilient varieties of
traditional rice on 1.5 acres of land at its agroecology centre in Panavally in
the Wayanad district.
Key takeaways:
Ikki Jathre:
● Thanal
gave the public an opportunity to experience their initiative by launching Ikki Jathre, or the Festival of Rice in
tribal parlance.
● Throngs
of farmers, researchers, environmentalists and students have been arriving at
Panavally to take part in the festival, which concludes on Sunday.
● The
initiative aims to sensitize people to the significance of conserving
traditional crops that have the ability to withstand harsh climatic conditions.
● Thanal
has been organizing annual “rice field
weeks” since 2012. Floods in 2018 and 2019 and then the COVID-19 pandemic
had put brakes on the festival, till the NGO decided to revive it this year.
Knowledge sharing:
● The
festival also sets the stage for knowledge sharing and co-creation of knowledge
between tribal farmers and experts.
● Thanal launched the Rice
Diversity Block (RDB) at Panavally under the Save Our Rice campaign in 2009,
with a collection of 30 varieties of rice and has now expanded to 300
varieties.
● Most
of the varieties were collected from Kerala, Karnataka, Assam, Tamil Nadu,
Arunachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal and here are three traditional
rice varieties from Vietnam and Thailand.
Significance:
● Many
varieties are drought-resistant and
flood-tolerant, while others have aromatic
and medicinal properties.
● For
example, the Thondy variety, a
traditional and popular rice among the people in Wayanad a few decades ago,
could compete with any hybrid rice in terms of productivity.
● Moreover,
the input cost of traditional rice cultivation is very low owing to its
inherent resistance to pests and diseases. Along with it, the nutritional value
is also high.
Issues:
● Though
many traditional rice varieties, especially black rice varieties, are already
rich in minerals like zinc, iron and other nutrients, the government is now trying to supply fortified rice by artificially
adding minerals and nutrients to hybrid rice varieties.
● India
had nearly 1.5 lakh varieties of rice, with about 3,000 varieties unique to
Kerala. Many of these have disappeared. Only 6,000 varieties are currently
being cultivated by the farmers in the country.