Odisha: Koraput's 1,745 rice varieties come down to 175; climate change and govt apathy blamed

Jeypore, Aug 13: The farmers of tribal-dominated undivided Koraput district of Odisha were farming around 1,745 varieties of rice using traditional cultivation practices that have reduced to 175 over the past six decades. The conservers of local traditional landraces of rice and millets of the district have blamed climate change and government apathy for this. Some tribal farmers have come forward to conserve the varieties. “Though traditional rice landraces are not lucrative against hybrid paddy cultivation, we need to conserve them so that these indigenous products do not extinct,” said a farmer of the district. As many as 1,745 varieties of paddy were found during a survey in undivided Koraput district and Kalahandi district during 1956-60, said agriculture researcher Dr. Prashant Parida. Another survey was conducted after 40 years and the traditional paddy varieties had been reduced to 350, added Parida. Recently, M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) had collected traditional paddy varieties in the Koraput district and found just 141 varieties that have been conserved by the foundation. On the other hand, agriculture researcher Dr. Debal Deb said he has conserved 175 rice landraces in the undivided Koraput district. Dr Parida said the changing climate in the present scenario has been posing a severe threat to traditional rice farming in the country. Besides, farmers prefer to cultivate a high-yielding hybrid variety of paddy and the government is not promoting the traditional varieties, said Parida. There is a need to preserve and multiply the traditional rice landraces to improve the adaptation mechanism of farmers. We can develop high-yielding varieties through these indigenous varieties. With the unavailability of the varieties, there would be no further improvement, he asserted.