What is common to Kalame, Kottambarasaale, Vellattuven, Gandhasaale, Jeerige Sanna, Karigajavile, Raaja Mudi, Chitteni, Aktikaaya, Narikela, Suggi kayame, Ghangadale, Kumkumasaale, Jugal, Kagga, Karijeddu, Parambu ucchan and Mysooru mallige? Well, these are the names of some of the traditional varieties of rice that are among the 650-plus variants being conserved by farmer Sathyanarayana Beleri, who was recently awarded the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award.
“My interest in conserving rice was born when I saw it being cultivated. I first bought the traditional Rajakayame paddy seeds from Udupi organic farmer Cherkady Ramachandra Rao over a decade ago,” says the 50-year-old. Thus started his conservation journey in Kasaragod, Kerala. Admitting that he was unaware of the existence of traditional rice variants, he started reaching out to other farmers for seeds.
As his farm land was not suitable for paddy cultivation due to its undulating terrain, he hit on the idea of growing the variants in grow bags. The process starts with sowing about 10-20 seeds of each rice variant in paper cups and maintaining sufficient moisture for them to germinate. Once they sprout in three to four days, the seedlings are allowed to grow in the paper cup for 10 days, after which they are transplanted to polybags that have compost mixture and are placed in the sunlight. Till the flowering phase, about 100 ml of Jeevamrutha, a natural liquid fertilizer made with water, dung, cow urine and local mud is added weekly to the bags.
Once the flowering starts, each polybag is shifted to a shallow water pond that is covered by a tarpaulin sheet and a bird net to avoid pest attacks. The rice is then harvested and stored in paper bags, with each variant being labelled. About 150 gm of pure seeds is obtained from each polybag which can be used for the next sowing season. “It is important to take care that there is no cross pollination and hence we use separate ponds for different variants,” says Beleri.
His efforts have borne fruit and he now has variants not just from Assam and Manipur, besides Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, but also the Philippines and Japan. Some notable varieties like Kagga that grows on saline soil, Vellathovan that can grows in less water and Ambemohar and Karigajavali that have medicinal properties are also at his farm. He has various colours of rice—white, black, red, purple and green—in his field. “There is a feeling of satisfaction that I am able to do what others are not doing and I want to make sure these variants continue to be cultivated,” says Beleri.
Quiz him on what the Padma Shri means to him, and the pride in his voice is unmissable. “It was something I had not expected and was pleasantly surprised to see my name along with so many stalwarts,” says Beleri, a shining beacon of hope for conservation.