UTTAR PRADESH: Chandauli is an eastern Uttar Pradesh district adjoining Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Some years back, it was among the “aspirational districts” lacking development. Of late it has turned the corner, earning a place among the four most progressive districts across India under the ‘Aspirational Districts Programme,’ says a UNDP appraisal report. An agricultural experiment has brought laurels to the district: ‘black rice’ has turned gold for farmers.
Chandauli, also known as UP’s rice bowl, has two-thirds of its population engaged in farming with most farmers cultivating paddy. To increase farmers’ income, the district administration, in coordination with the district agriculture department, experimented with the cultivation of black rice in the sustainable agricultural sector. It proved to be a boon for farmers.
Different from white rice, the black variety is cultivated in an ecosystem free from chemical fertilisers, and has a unique nutritional value with high dietary fibre blended with the richness of iron, zinc, magnesium, Vitamin E, minerals, antioxidants and protein. Black rice is naturally gluten-free and is believed to boost cardiac health. Due to its anti-inflammatory properties, it helps in preventing cancer. It is good for people with diabetes and is known to be a natural detoxifier. It also helps in the prevention of ailments such as atherosclerosis, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and hypertension, among others.
It is costlier than the normal rice and accrues better returns to the cultivators as the yield is normally 4-5 times more than the normal rice and so are the returns, says a senior district agriculture department official. A native of Manipur in the North-East originally, owing to its increasing demand in the global market, the UP government encouraged around 300 farmers of Chandauli to start its cultivation in 2018.
The district agriculture department popularised black rice cultivation by making farmers aware of its goodness coupled with monetary benefits by organising ‘Kisan Pathshala’, ‘farmers’ seminars and district-level farmer exhibitions. “Better pricing and a growing demand on account of numerous health benefits have led farmers to switch to black rice cultivation,” says CB Singh, a senior agriculturist associated with the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority in Chandauli.
He says after the initial yields, the department was working to remove the challenges cropping up in its cultivation and processing for better results.
Known as a super food, black rice is now being exported to countries like Australia and New Zealand with options in other countries being explored. It is in huge demand in the US, and UK too. Given its goodness, the UP government is expanding the area of cultivation to other neighbouring districts like Mirzapur and Sonbhadra, Ghazipur, Mau and Ballia.
Black rice cultivation has been promoted under various schemes of the Yogi government, such as ‘One District-One Product’ and ‘Export Policy 2020-25’. These schemes aim at doubling farmers’ income and increasing exports from various sectors, including agriculture. District agriculture department officials say black rice cultivation leads to an exponential increase in returns to farmers against conventional rice. The price of black rice paddy is around Rs 80-85 per kg, against Rs 19-20 per kg MSP of Grade A paddy. The price of processed black rice is Rs 160 per kg; it is sold for around Rs 200-500 per kg in the market.
According to a senior agriculture department official, by sowing 15 kg of black rice with an investment of Rs 42,000, the farmer gets Rs 2,55,500 by selling his crop. In the case of normal rice, the farmer after sowing 30 kg of paddy with an investment of Rs 58,000 gets only Rs 54,500 in return, which is four times lower than what he earns from black rice.
“The number of farmers producing black rice has gone up to 700-850 since 2018 in Chandauli,” says Mithilesh Singh, a farmer of Jalalpur village, engaged in black rice cultivation. Raj Bahadur Kushwaha of Akauni village says the area of cultivation of black rice has increased from 1,500 hectares in 2018 to 7,000 hectares now. He accepts that there are some challenges in its cultivation as it is completely organic, requiring a lot of manual labour. “Some farmers initially treated it with chemical fertilisers but faced losses. The yield is as high as 25 quintals per hectare,” says Raj Bahadur.
ECONOMICS OF BLACK AND WHITE
According to a senior agriculture department official, by sowing 15 kg of black rice with an investment of Rs 42,000, the farmer gets Rs 2,55,500 by selling his crop. In the case of normal rice, the farmer after sowing 30 kg of paddy with an investment of Rs 58,000 gets only Rs 54,500 in return, which is four times lower than what he earns from black rice.