NEW DELHI: Farmers in the eastern districts of Uttar Pradesh are seeing their dreams take flight with the revival of the aromatic black rice variety, Adamchini. This initiative, led by agricultural scientists at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), has recently achieved significant breakthroughs in improving the variety’s resilience and productivity.
The Adamchini rice, known for its sugar-crystal-like grains, pleasant aroma and superior cooking qualities, has long faced challenges due to its tall stature and slow maturation. Historically, its height, reaching up to 165 cm, made it vulnerable to lodging in adverse weather, damaging the texture and yield.
Additionally, the rice’s long maturity period (155 days) and low yields (20-23 quintals per hectare) discouraged farmers from scaling up production, despite strong market demand, particularly from Australia and New Zealand.
In response to these challenges, Professor Shravan Kumar Singh and his team at BHU’s Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding have spent over 14 years researching ways to enhance Adamchini without compromising its core qualities. The breakthrough came with the use of mutagenesis, a technique that has successfully reduced the rice’s height, shortened its maturity period and increased its yield, all while retaining the signature aroma and grain type.
The research team has developed 23 novel mutant lines of Adamchini, including varieties with a reduced height (105 cm for mutant-14), earlier maturity (120 days for mutant-19), and higher yields (30-35 quintals per hectare for mutants 14, 15, 19, and 20). These improvements have made the rice more suitable for mass production while retaining its coveted fragrance, which is said to surpass that of popular Basmati.
These advancements have been particularly welcomed by farmers in the eastern foothills of the Vindhya mountain ranges, spanning districts like Chandauli, Mirzapur, Sonbhadra and parts of Varanasi. The state government has since branded Adamchini as “Vindhya Black Rice”.