Rice

79Gobar Times, January 15, 2004 Down To Earth supplement

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Gobar Times, a Down To Earth supplement. Produced by the Environment Education Unit of Centre for Science and Environment, 41 Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi 110062Ph: 2995 6110, 2995 5124, 2995 6394 Fax: 2995 5879 Fax: 2608 58729 Email: [email protected] Website: www.cseindia.org, www.gobartimes.org Bangalore Office: ShivaApartments, 1st floor, 77/6, Nandidurg Road, Bangalore 560046 Ph: 51289883/81 Email: [email protected] Editor/Design: Rustam Vania Copy / Research: Sunil Rajguru, Rachita JhaDesign: Rina Upadhyaya, Kirpal Singh Printed at: Thomson Press (India) Ltd, Faridabad

Dear Gobar Times Readers,

Next time you get a wonderful whiff of freshly cooked Basmati rice, remember this:

In 1997, the Texas based RiceTec Inc. obtained Patent No. 5663484 from the US

Patent Office on Basmati rice lines and grains. So?

India possesses tremendous diversity in rice varieties reflecting the culmination

of centuries of informal breeding and evolution by the farmers of this country. Tilll

recently, farmers grew over 30,000 varieties of rice. Will small farmers in Asia be

having to pay royalties to a multinational company each time they grow and eat rice?

The UN has declared the year 2004 as the International Year of Rice and this

month in January the World Social Forum comes to India. People from around the

world are gathering at Mumbai to question and change the way the world grows its

food, does business, science and trade that harms people and the environment. We

hope you also believe that ‘Another world is possible’! Now let me get back to my

steaming dal chawal...

– Pandit Gobar Ganesh

A name that connects you and yourlife, to the outside world. The manyuses of gobar in millions of Indianhomes is a wonderful example ofthe best use of natural resources. A tradition of wealth from waste.So can we learn to apply these environmental principles in our modern lives to achieve a sustain-able lifestyle and save ourselves andour planet?

Get your copy ofGobar Times

FREE with Down To Earth

WWhhyy GGoobbaarr TTiimmeess ??READ. RECYCLE. REUSE.

S U B S C R I B E N O W !

WWhhyy GGoobbaarr TTiimmeess ??

COVER PHOTO: SURYA SEN / CSE

RiceasiaThe story of a grain: from land to mouth

And yet...● The complete rice genome map is with Myriad

Genetics, an American company and Syngenta of

Switzerland

● The patent for Golden rice, enriched with

beta-carotene, could help reduce Vitamin A defi-

ciency, a leading cause of blindness in Asian children,

is with the West

● The patent for India’s Basmati is with RiceTec, an

American company

● US is one of the biggest exporters of rice

● Asian rice is sold at very low rates in the

international market, while Western rice is priced

much higher

Did you know that...● 98 per cent of the world’s rice is grown in Asia.

● 91 per cent of the world’s rice is eaten in Asia.

● Rice is the staple food of three of the world's four

most populous nations: China, India and Indonesia.

That’s 2.5 billion people!

● More than 1 billion people depend on rice for their

livelihood. Most of these farmers are in Asia.

● In Asia, more than 2 billion people obtain 60-70%

of their caloric intake from rice and its

products.

● The Himalayas are the cradle for modern rice. Rice

cultivation spread from the Indian subcontinent.

82 Gobar Times, January 15, 2004 Down To Earth supplement

COVER STORY

Did you know that...● 98 per cent of the world’s rice is grown in Asia.

● 91 per cent of the world’s rice is eaten in Asia.

● Rice is the staple food of three of the world's four

most populous nations: China, India and Indonesia.

That’s 2.5 billion people!

● More than 1 billion people depend on rice for their

livelihood. Most of these farmers are in Asia.

● In Asia, more than 2 billion people obtain 60-70%

of their caloric intake from rice and its

products.

● The Himalayas are the cradle for modern rice. Rice

cultivation spread from the Indian subcontinent.

"Dal-chawal, biryani, dosa, idli, kheer...yum! Rice is our present. Rice is ourHistory. It is our Sociology, Tradition andLifeline. In India, no ritual is completewithout using akshata (rice coloured with

haldi)"

“Uhhh... ummmm... Genes? Patents? What’s the

need? But haven’t our people been using these

varieties for centuries? Wait...Drat! we just lostanother patent

“Rice cultivation is long,laborious. Seed issown somewhere,transplanted elsewhere. I cando 1 acre in 3days. Ploughing,manuring, flooding,weeding, harvesting,is all done by hand.”

I hear rice originated inHimalayas. It went fromIndia to rest of world.We have been growingBasmati for centuries. ButI hear that in future,we may have to paybig dollars to growand export our ownrice. Can this be?

“Rice = Decoding the genetic code = Rice Genome =So many hybrids =So many patents = Asian market monopoly =$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$!!!”

“Growing rice is cool. Ploughthe field with a tractor. Floodit. Drop soaked rice seedsfrom a plane. It takes us oneday in man-hours to grow atonne of paddy. (It takesAsia 100 days to do thesame!)

"Basmati. Kasmati. Texmati.You name it. We stock it. We

deliver it. We export it.Anyone else who does soshould be locked up forillegal trade. Up withthe World TradeOrganisation!"

The South - North Rice Divide

Ricetec Tecchie

"Rice? Ya, you get it fried in those fancyChinese restaurants. By the way, Economyis greater than History,Sociology and Traditionput together. We control world trade.We’ll grab the rice market too!


COVER STORY

Yankee Wheatman

McRice farmerChawal Paaniwallah

Bharati Riceplate

Farji Basmatiwallah

Desi Nopatentlal

Real Deal Basmatiman


FARMING

The Many Labours of RiceMore than 1 billion people in the world make their living from rice. That's because rice farming isn't as simple as sowing the seed and growing it normally.

First, rice seed is sown onto a carefully preparedstarter bed. Then the rice field is manured, floodedand ploughed. When the seedlings gain a certainheight, they are transplanted from the bed to field byhand. A single experienced farmer will take 3 days totransplant one acre, though this is always done bymany people working together.

Then the field is hand-weeded and flooded. Thefield has to remain flooded for 3-6 months. Harvestingis done by hand. Then the rice has to be threshed (the

grains are separated from the stalk) and milled (that is,the husk is removed).

Water, Water EverywhereRice is extremely labour-intensive, but it gives moreemployment than other crops, a boon to the over-populated regions of Asia. However, the majorcause of concern is that rice is a water-guzzler. Withthe amount of water needed for one acre of rice, youcould irrigate 3 acres of wheat and 5 acres of vegetables. More than 80 per cent of rice lands in theworld are rain fed and grow only one crop a year. So,if the rains fail, even that crop is gone.

And how much water can be diverted for rice irrigation at a time when fresh water is running short

WaterworldIt takes 5000 litres of water to produce 1 kg of rice!

More than 1 billion people make their livelihood from rice

In an age where rapidly growing populations are competing for limited supplies of water, it remains to be seen how long Asia can sustain growth in

rice production in the 21st century with that kind of ratio.

for human consumption? Already around Beijing,farmers are not allowed to grow rice in flooded fieldsdue to a shortage of water. If that is a taste of thingsto come, then it's bad news for India.

Doing More With LessIn the future, rice production must grow to keep pacewith the growing population with better and moreefficient use of water, land and labour. At the sametime, losses incurred during production, transporta-tion and processing have to be reduced.

One way to reduce the amount of water requiredfor cultivation is by the development of varieties called"aerobic rice", that are better suited for dry soils.Scientists have been trying to develop, genetically, ricethat would yield several times the current types"almost anytime and anywhere in the torrid zone".

The concurrent use of rice-field water both for irrigation and aquaculture is another good idea.Another basic, but unpopular measure would be tomake farmers pay for all the water they use in the rice-fields. That would encourage water conservation.Schemes like this are already underway in China.

India exported 1,532,600 tonnes of rice in 2000. Ifthat was equated with exporting 7663 billion litres ofwater, one would get a fair idea of the magnitude ofthe problem.


ECOLOGY

The second World Social Forum in PortoAlegre in Brazil in 2002 opened under thetheme of "Another world is possible".Delegates exchanged views on alternatives and solutions with each other.A group from Brazil adopted organic ricegrowing techniques from China. Using

this method, in the same pond, fish andrice can be symbiotic,eliminating the need for fertilizersand additional

ponds.

Rice fields covered 1.5 million square kms of land in 2002

With the

water needed

for one acre

of rice, you

could

irrigate 5

acres of

vegetables.

WW

W.A

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Without flooded fields?!Without pesticides?!Masanobu Fukuoka is the pioneer of "natural farming",which could reverse the degener-ative momentum of modern agri-culture. It requires no machinesand no chemicals. He growshigh-yielding crops of rice simplyby scattering seed onto an unplowed field!From his book The One-Straw Revolution: "Thebasic idea came to him one day as he hap-pened to pass an old field which had been leftunused and unplowed for many years. Therehe saw healthy rice seedlings sproutingthrough a tangle of grasses and weeds. Fromthen on, he stopped flooding his field in orderto grow rice. He stopped sowing rice seed inspring and, instead, put the seed out in theautumn, sowing it directly onto the surface ofthe field when it would naturally have fallen tothe ground. Instead of plowing the soil to getrid of weeds, he learned to control them by amore or less permanent ground cover of whiteclover and a mulch of rice and barley straw.Once he has seen to it that conditions havebeen tilted in favour of crops, Mr Fukuokainterferes as little as possible with in his fields.”

130 million years ago... Wild rice started growing on this planet.

15000 years ago: The “indica” variety of wild rice

grew on the northern and southern slopes of the

Himalayas. It spread to northern and eastern

India, Southeast Asia and to southern China.

3500 years ago: In Africa, a domestic strain was

developed from wild rice.

3000 years ago: Rice was introduced to Japan from

eastern China.

543 BC: Indica entered Sri Lanka and then made its

way to Malaya and Java. Centuries after, Asian

rice also reached Africa via Java.

1st to 11th Centuries AD: Arab traders took rice from

India to Iran and then Egypt. From there it went to

Spain and Sicily. The Moors took it to Portugal.

639 AD: Rice was first cultivated in the Nile Valley.

1468: From Italy, rice reached Bulgaria,

Yugoslavia and Romania.

1522: Mexico received its first shipment.

1609: America received its first shipment.

Early 18th Century: Czar Peter I first imported rice

into the country from Iran.

And today...It is grown in all continents except Antarctica.

Source: The Story of Rice by R D Sharma, NBT

ORYZA SATIVA: Food for millions

Old Japanese saying "He whowastes rice will eitherbecome blind, go to hell or be ground to powder!"

Thus spake Confucious "If you have old rice to eat, waterto drink and a pillow to rest your arm, all is joy."

THE KING OF CEREALS● Rice is tolerant to desert,hot, humid, flooded, dry andcool conditions. ● It is the only cereal whichcan grow in deep water. ● It can grow in saline, alkaline and acidic soils.● In Nepal it grows 2750metres above sea level and in some places in Kerala, 3 metres below sea level !

The starchy seeds or grain of an annual marsh grass,cultivated in warm climates and used for food. 'Rice' comes from the Tamil word arisi. Arab traders took arisi with themand called it al-ruz. This became arroz in Spanish and oriza in Greek. In French it became riz, Italian riso, German reis and finally in English rice. The biological name for rice, oryza, also comes from arisi.

When one grain was enoughSage Durvasa and hundreds of hisdisciples visited the Pandavaswhen they were in exile in the forest. Durvasa told Draupadi thatthey were all hungry. Draupadi wasat her wits end for there was nothing in her kitchen. Fearful ofDurvasa's temper and his habit ofthrowing curses, she requested thesage and his disciples to take bathin a nearby river.

Then Draupadi prayed toKrishna for help. Krishna came andsaid he was hungry too! Not know-ing what to do, Draupadi broughtthe empty food vessel. And thereattached to the back of the vesselwas a grain of rice! Krishna put it inhis mouth and satisfied his hunger.The Lord of the Universe had eatenenough; and with this was satisfiedthe appetite of the whole world!

At the riverbank, Durvasa andhis disciples suddenly felt theirstomach full. They left without everbothering Draupadi any more.

When a little rice was worth the world Krishna was so pleased with hischildhood friend Sudama's gift oftwo handfuls of roasted rice that inreturn he gave him the Earth andthe heavens.

If his queen Rukmini had notstopped him, he would have givenSudama the Cosmos as well.

The Mahabharat

THE KING OF CEREALS● Rice is tolerant to desert,hot, humid, flooded, dry andcool conditions. ● It is the only cereal whichcan grow in deep water. ● It can grow in saline, alkaline and acidic soils.● In Nepal it grows 2750metres above sea level and in some places in Kerala, 3 metres below sea level !

RICE:

87Gobar Times, January 15, 2004 Down To Earth supplement86 Gobar Times, January 15, 2004 Down To Earth supplement


BIOTECHNOLOGY

Chinese scientists bred the world’s first hybrid rice in 1974

The Patent and the PoorSo the rice genome doesn't go to Asia. Big deal. Thedeveloped world is patenting most of the developingworld's biodiversity anyway. So what's so different thistime around? Well, the difference is that 80 per centof the world's rice is grown by small-scale farmers inlow-income and developing countries. And they can'tafford to pay for new expensive technology. Syngentahad declared that it wouldn’t be patenting the ricegene, but would patent "any useful pro-cesses that may be related to thegene". But it's not as simple as itsounds.

Controlling theRice GeneThe World TradeO r g a n i s a t i o n(WTO) Agreementon Trade RelatedAspects of Inte-llectual PropertyRights (TRIPS)gives multina-tionals the rightto claim absoluteownership over ricethrough patents.

Today, there aremore than 600 biotechpatents on rice genes,plants and breeding methodsall over the world. Western corpo-rations and research labs hold 90 percent of these patents. So in effect, they cancontrol and force Asian farmers to pay for the use ofgenetic resources and knowledge which originatedfrom them.

The famous Basmati case is one such example(See box Basmati Blues).

Another example is the promise of "Golden rice".This rice is genetically engineered to produce high levels of beta-carotene, which helps reduce Vitamin Adeficiency, a leading cause of blindness among poorAsian children.

In January 2001, the entire genome of rice

was mapped, the first major cereal crop to

have its genetic code unraveled. This feat

was accomplished by Myriad Genetics of

the US and Syngenta of Switzerland. These

two companies now hold the key to the

future of rice harvests in Asia.

Who controls the ricegenie?

But even the patent for that is with the West.

Power to the FarmersMost genebanks are held by corporations which thecommon farmer has no access to. Communitygenebanks, on the other hand, secure people's controlover genetic resources. Seeds can be produced locally,protecting the farmers' autonomy.

One such bank is the Konkan rice project inMaharashtra. It started when farmers noticed

stagnation in rice yields, despite puttingmore fertilisers, pesticides and

herbicides. They found thatrice cultivation based on

minimal genetic diversity led pest proliferation,

which in turn calledfor more pesticides.

So some250 seeds ofindigenous vari-eties in theregion were collected, cata-logued and

stored. The pro-

ject, which evolved under the guidance ofDr RH Richharia, breeds hybrids to improve produc-tivity. Several successful crosses have been performed.Cloning technology is practiced for large-scale multi-plication of rice seeds. And all this is easily accessibleto local farmers.

It is in community genebanks that the Asian farmers have the best chances for controlling futurerice yields.

That’s the best chance that they can take on themultinationals and protect their own interests.


UNFAIR TRADE

Basmati BluesIn 1997, RiceTec, an American multinational, wasgranted the right to call a variety of aromatic rice'Basmati'. Since Basmati has been grown for centuries in the foothills of the Himalayas, this flagrant act of biopiracy was met surprise and angryprotests in India and Pakistan. But at stake is themulti-crore rupee export market to West. Indiaalone exported 8.48 lakh tonnes of basmati rice in2000-01. (RiceTec filed for the patent in 1994, butthe government of India did not take any action forthe 3 years that the patent was pending)

RiceTec also chose to name a brand 'Jasmati',even though it has no genetic relation to ThaiJasmine rice or Indian Basmati. Thailand claims thatthe usage of the term will purposely mislead consumers into believingthat its rice is a crossbetween the two varieties.

More than five millionfarmers in Thailand dependon Jasmine rice for a living.Their livelihood is in dangerif RiceTec eats into theJasmine rice market.

At WSF 2003, Canadian farmer PercySchmeiser gave a moving testimonial onpatents. But who is he? In 1998, Schmeiserwas sued by Monsanto for patent rightsviolations, allegedly for using Monsanto'sgenetically modified rapeseed withoutlegally purchasing it. Schmeiser claims therapeseed came to his farm as a result of"contamination" — wind blown seedsfrom other farms taking root on his soil.Monsanto says how theseeds got there doesn't matter, it'stheir property and they asked for $400,000in damages for patentinfringement!

Community genebanks could protect the farmers’ autonomy

There are more than 600

biotech patents on rice genes,

plants and breeding methods


RICE TRADE

US Foreign Policy and RiceHybrids and genetically modified ricecrops have transformed the entirerice industry of the developing worldin the second half of the twentiethcentury. While the debate rages onwhether that has contributed to the overall good of the region, itis interesting to study the linkagebetween US post-war foreign policy and rice. The book RiceScience and Development Politicsexplains this in detail.

When America looked to thedeveloping world after the SecondWorld War, it was concerned withtwo issues. The first was econo-mics. It sought new frontier mar-kets and came to the conclusionthat it wouldn't get good tradingpartners unless the issue of foodsecurity was sorted out. The secondwas ideology. The US was scaredthat "unstable" nations would leantowards communism.

So in the fifties, rice productionwas put at the centre of anAmerican strategy to addressfood insecurity and political

RicEconomicsHere's some food for thought. The US has just 0.79 per cent of the world's rice land

under cultivation and with that it controls 12.7 per cent of the rice exports. With more

and more patents going to American multinationals, that figure could rise dramatically

in the next couple of decades.

In Myanmar, people eat half a kilogram of rice a DAY

“The struggle of the 'East' versus the 'West' in Asia is in part a race forproduction, and rice is the symbol and substance of it.” – Foreign Affairs, 1953

unrest. The Rockefeller and Ford foundations patron-ised the International Rice Research Institute, which inturn led to the Green Revolution and dramatic rise inthe production of rice (and wheat).

Chemicals and CreditHowever, traditional practices that had been practiced for centuries were thrown out unceremoni-ously. In came rice varieties that required high inputs of pesticides and fertilizers, for which farmers had torely on credit. It has also replaced diversity with uniformity and transformed farmers into mere farm workers.

All the "miracle" rice varieties produce little in theabsence of liberal doses of chemical fertilisers and costly pesticides. And today they dominate the market.

Extensive use of pesticides has also led to contami-nation of agricultural land and groundwater all acrossin developing countries.

Capturing The Seed MarketInterestingly, the commercial rice seed market is theonly rice market where Asia doesn't dominate,accounting for less than a quarter of the $32 billionmarket. But there are other issues involved.

Multinational seed corporations all run rice programmes in a bid to dominate and expand theseed market. Hybrids power seed markets. Most ofthese do not reproduce and so force farmers to purchase new seeds every season. Rice, however, is aself-pollinating crop, making hybrid rice seed produc-tion costly and difficult, and nearly all rice in Asia is stillgrown with farmer-saved seed. The seed industrybelieves that the combination of genetic engineeringand patents can overcome this hurdle.

Through patents and contractual agreements, seedcompanies will seek to prohibit farmers from sharingor saving seed, control what pesticides are used andeven assert ownership rights over the harvest.


MARKETS

Concernon foodsecurityissues

Foreign policy

changes

US fear ofcommu-

nism and instability

“Henry Saragih, an Indonesian delegateto the World Social Forum in 2001, citedthe example of low rice prices (the resultof imports of the grain from the UnitedStates), which are devastating the ricefarmers in his country.

The same dynamic affects Europeanfarmers, who face bankruptcy from a sys-tem that favours only the big farms, said

Egidio Brunetto, a leader ofBrazil’s Movimentodos Sem Terra’ (landless movement)underscoring theircommon struggle

worldwide.”

High Price. Low PriceAmerica and India handle their rice marketsvery differently. While the US pampers its farmers and pushes the rice price as up as itcan to maximise its profits, India penalises itsmarketeers if they don’t keep the rice pricedown so that the poor can afford it.

That illustrates the rich-poor country dividein rice. Wealthier countries use a combinationof domestic market interventions and borderprotection or export subsidies depending onwhether they are importers or exporters.

In contrast, poor developing countries inAsia tax rice producers, with domestic pricesoften less than three-fourths of world prices.Domestic controls are aplenty and diverse.Most of these countries have some form ofprice support system. These support prices arealmost always below the international prices.(Rice Trade Liberalisation and Poverty, Gulati and Narayanan, EPW)

The average European eats about 3 kgs of rice a YEAR

Formationof Interna-tional RiceResearchInstitute

GreenRevolution

Boom inPesticide,Herbicide,Fertiliserindustry

REDRICE


EYE-OPENER

Hot hot rice!

Green gas Rice fields emit methane, which reacts in the atmosphere to becomecarbon dioxide and water vapour. All three are greenhouse gases (GHGs). But it’s notas simple as that. Methane emissions come from a lot of sources. Finding the exactamount from rice fields is very tricky. In 1990, the Panel on Climate Change estimatedmethane production from paddy fields as 110 million tones (mt), this was revised to 60mt in 1992 and 37 mt in 1994. But even that was contested by India.

Who's the real culprit? The World Resources Institute in 1990 tried to showthat the annual GHG emissions of developing countries were the same as the West! TheCentre for Science and Environment (CSE) argued that it was important to differentiatebetween “survival emissions” like rice cultivation and cattle rearing, which employspoor farmers and feeds millions and “luxury emissions” like driving cars.

Sinking Logic: The WRI also failed to account for the Earth’s ecological sinks —its vegetation and oceans — properly. The WRI apportioned the sinks on the basis of acountry’s share in global emissions. So the biggest polluters got the biggest share of thesinks! CSE allocated sinks according to population as every human being has an equalright to sinks in the world. The differences were startling.

See-saw figures: The WRI formula put the net emissions at 10.3% for India andChina and also 10.3% for Brazil. The CSE figure for India and China crashed to 0.6%and zoomed to 18.2% for Brazil! America’s share went up from 17% to 27.4%.

Grow rice and contribute to global warming!Strange but true. Paddy fields emit methane, a greenhouse gas.

Developed countries twisted this fact to show that developing

countries’ emissions matched their’s, but they didn’t get away with it.

THEY ALL EMIT METHANE

�Paddy cultivation

�Domesticated

livestock

�Biomass burning

�Coal mining

�Natural gas and

oil production

�Coal Mining

CARBON DIOXIDE (CO2) WATER VAPOUR (H2O)

HYDROXYL RADICAL (OH) +

METHANE (CH4)


NUTRITION

How it's made: To make parboiled rice, rice is first soaked inwater after which the excess water is drained off. It is then steamed,dried and pounded to remove the husk. Thanks to this, the outerlayer turns hard and does not break during milling. Its appearancebecomes yellowish and glossy.

What it does: In technical terms, rough rice, becomes gela-tinized by hydrothermal treatment, improving the cooking qualitiesand producing a shift of the vitamin's and nutritive substancestowards the inside, so that it retains a higher nutritional value.

A little bit of history: In 1882, when a Japanese ship returnedafter a nine-month voyage, 25 of its 276-member crew were dead.The rest were listless. They had eaten boiled rice three times a day butthis was polished ice from a mill and had its nutritive outer layerremoved. The same symptoms were also noticed in Malaysian andJavanese sailors. The disease was called “beri-beri”, which means“extreme weakness” in Sinhalese. On being fed mill rice even hens fellill, but recovered when given parboiled rice! In polishing and makingrice glossy, vitamins were lost. Not so in parboiled rice.

Vitamins discovered: The “lost vitamin” wasVitamin B. Before this discovery, nobody knewabout vitamins. Christiaan Eijkman was thefirst to research this and got the NobelPrize in 1929.

And today: Thanks to theNestles patent, once the WorldTrade Organisation comesfully into effect, indigenousparboiled rice could becomea pirated product in exportmarkets, and one day inIndia too!

Rice &

shine

Dal + chawal = Complete khanaRice is a rich source of dietary energy and a lot of vitamins. Unmilledrice is high on dietary fibre. But rice alone cannot supply all of the nutri-ents necessary for adequate nutrition. Fish is a useful addition to the dietas it provides large amounts of essential amino acids (proteins) andmicronutrients. For vegetarians, pulses, such as beans, groundnuts andlentils, are also nutritional complements to the rice-based diet and help tocomplete the amino acid profile.

Many traditional dishes throughout the world combine these ingredients toachieve better nutritional balance. So if you eat either dal aur chawal or rice and fishcurry, you are eating a wholesome meal.

This Indian innovation savedsailors from beri-beri

"Parboiled rice", which is more

nutritious than any other form

of rice and retains a better

shape after cooking, is India's

gift to the world. Today, a fifth

of the world's rice is parboiled.

However, the Swiss

multinational Nestles has got

the European patent for

parboiled rice, even though the

practice has been going on in

India for centuries.


GT PROJECT

Be a GT Rice Reporter!

Investigate and discover

RICE INDIAIndia is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of crop diversity.Over hundreds of years of farming in different ecological settings, the farm-ers of India have bred and grown thousands of varieties of rice. So many varietiesand so many ways to grow them!

This genetic wealth is fast eroding. People living in cities today are ignorant of this fact and arenot concerned. After reading this issue of GT, we hope you feel strongly about this and wish to change thestate of affairs. To begin with atleast we can collect and document this ecological history of our country.Every region in India has a different story to tell. Why don’t you investigate the rice scene in your locality? Findout the types of rice available in your local area, how farmers grow them and ask them how things havechanged. Interview your local grocer, visit your towns wholesale market, ask your grandparents of the kindsof rice they ate...

We wish this to be a collaborative and voluntary effort between GT readers across the county and us. Anyonecan participate - an individual, a family, a class or school. Feel free to contact us for any clarifications or helpyou may want. We will compile all your reports and publish the results in a forthcoming issue. All participantswill get a surprise gift. Last date for submission: 15 March 2004Send your 'Rice India' project reports to: Gobar Times, Centre for Science and Environment, 41, Tughlakabad Institutional Area, New Delhi 110062.Fax: (011) 2995 5879 Email: [email protected]

Gobar Times Project

What's the local name?What does the name tell us?Why are farmers no longer

growing traditional varieties?

What's the colour, size of grain and quality? Long, medium or round?

Broken grains or not?

Who grows these localvarieties?

Taste? Smell?Nutitional value?Any health benifits?

Cheap? Expensive?No market for it? Why not?

What special ecological characteristics does this variety have?

Grows under drought conditions?Under water? In saline water?

Who grows these local varieties?Why grow them at all?

What's the religious and culturalsignificance? Any anecdotes?

India is home to one of the greatest diversities of both wild and cultivated crops

It is claimed that around 4,00,000 varieties of rice existed in India during thevedic period

Dr Richharia, a well know rice scientist, has collected and identified 20,000varieties of rice in the Chhattisgarh area of Madhya Pradesh alone

75% of Indian rice production comes from 10 rice varieties – out of 30,000 thatexisted a few decades ago

Most indigenous varieties are resistant to pests, require less farm inputs likefertilizers and pesticides and they yield straw that is valuable to the farmer ascattle feed and roofing material

While rice is just oryza sativain Latin; the names ofsome of the varieties inlocal languages tellfar more about thevariety; Kaala naaj-black grain, latmar-difficult to thresh,basmati-fragrantrice "Hybrid rice is

not for the poor."


Rice

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genetic resources

developing countries

jasmine rice

gobar times

carbon dioxide

panditji cseindia

sea level