A good day to celebrate rice is the Liberation Day of Goa, 19 December, when we also felicitate the innovative farmers with the Krishi awards: Ratna, Vibhushan and Bhushan. One either grew food for the family or starved. Now, after years of using fertilisers and chemicals, the focus is on healthy food. While Jaya and Jyoti are the mainstay of rice in Goa since the 1980s, the farmers are going back to traditional varieties and some new introductions like the Black Rice from the Far East countries like Japan and Korea.
Except for the salt-tolerant Korgut and Asgo in the khazan land, most of the heirloom varieties of rice like Damgo, Kochri, Patni, Sotti, etc have long been forgotten, except for a seed bank in Mayem-Sikeri, the ICAR-CCARI at Ela, Old Goa and a few farmers. The Curtorim Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC) with Santano Rodrigues in the lead role is working to revive the local varieties of rice.
Dr K K Manohar, the rice breeder at ICAR-CCARI, has been working on the Korgut rice for many years. He has developed two ‘pure lines’ Goa Dhan-1 (KS-12) of white grain and Goa Dhan- 2 (KS-17) of red kernel, both with yield of about 2.6 tonnes per hectare. All these varieties were recently exhibited at the ‘Tandulachem Fest’ in Maina-Curtorim.
The Black Rice of the Far East first came to Manipur in the North-East of India and became immediately popular. It is known as chak-hao a term derived from chak meaning rice and ahaoba meaning delicious. It is prized as a medicinal food suitable for diabetics for whom rice is normally contra-indicated. It is one of the prime reasons for its popularity and premium prices. A rarity fetches premium price and Black Rice fetches about Rs 400 per kilogram or more than four times the best price for the regular varieties. From there it moved to the tribal belt of Bastar, straddling Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Bengal and Odisha and then spread across peninsular India.
Black rice was grown on half acre field area each by Fr Pio Furtado SFX at Fr Agnel’s High School in Pilar and by Rudresh Kambli with SRI technology at the Duler Farm of the Zonal Agriculture Office, Mapusa, just across the road from my house. Hansel Vaz, who is more popular for the cashew feni, also grew Black rice in Benaulim. The variety performs well and is suitable for cultivation in Goa. Consistent cultivation, quality assurance and branding are needed to sustain this variety in Goa.
All economies are market-driven today, including retreats, expositions, and festivals. Even IFFI does not pay for itself and needs to be generously funded from taxpayers’ money. That will not happen for rice where the assured support price (ASP) across varieties is a meagre Rs 22 per kg of paddy or less than Rs 40 per kilogram of rice. Black Rice needs to tap the premium market like the aromatic Basmati rice.
A country is truly free if its citizens are free from hunger and want. The economic blockade of 1954-61 taught the people of Goa how to be ‘Swayampoorna’ or self-sufficient because it was the only way to survive in a colonial pocket on a newly independent India’s skirt.
There was only a limited option to buy the surplus rice from others and there were no fair price shops (FPS) or a public distribution system (PDS) or BPL ration cards during the colonial era that some still yearn for. Nothing else had managed to promote cultivation and food self-sufficiency in Goa as the blockade did, except may be the lockdown due to Covid pandemic from 2020 to 2023.
For the Xit-Koddi-nustem eating Goans, the first item of food is rice. We need to grow it. This realisation is sinking in again and the rice-fields are being cultivated once more. We do not want free rice; we want insecticide-free rice. Goa is going organic and natural farming is the way forward.
The fields come alive annually with the sounds of machinery ploughing the land, transplanting seedlings and harvesting using tractors, power-tillers, transplanters and combine-harvesters. Fr. George Quadros sdb has an eloquent message in his work. The Goencho Xetkar is another start-up inspired and mentored by George! The Rachol seminary celebrated ‘Tandul Gotto’ a few years ago and its seminarians continue to grow rice for their own consumption. The youth are joining the process with much enthusiasm. Young professionals are entering the field of agriculture in growing numbers.
(The writer, former agricultural officer and a mentor to the GenNext organic farmers, is committed to nurturing young talent for a food-secure future)
