Team Herald
Calangute: Varieties of local rice that could survive the vagaries of nature, had medicinal benefits and abounded in the State are nowhere to be found today.
“Before the Green Revolution, there were around 60 varieties of traditional rice grown in Goa. Today there are only four or five varieties that are still being grown, albeit with difficulty due to the rapidly changing climate,” said Claude Alvares, Director, Goa Foundation.
Talking during a discussion at Pilerne on encouraging indigenous agricultural practices, Alvares highlighted the disconnect between today’s urban generation and nature, with food being consumed without knowledge of the ingredients.
“The Adivasi or indigenous people follow agricultural and agro-ecological practices that are millenia-old, producing rice varieties that are full of nutrients and have distinct natural flavours. However, our generations suffer from ‘nature-deficit syndrome’, where we are cut off from the diversity of rice. In Goa, the white rice sold in supermarkets can’t be utilised to make traditional Goan sweets, which can only be made with the traditional Goan korgut rice and other local varieties,” stated Alvares.
Award-winning journalist and filmmaker Chitrangada Choudhury’s film ‘Seed Stories’ (2024) which highlights Odisha’s Adivasi communities and ecologist Debal Deb’s endeavour to protect over 1,000 varieties of heirloom rice was screened at the event at Museum of Goa (MOG) recently.
The documentary film gives audiences a ‘worm’s eye view’ of indigenous agroforestry practices in the Niyamgiri mountains of Odisha’s Eastern Ghats, a biodiversity hotspot, and the current encroachment of genetically modified cotton monoculture harming the biodiversity-rich landscape and leaving farmers in the lurch in case of crop failure, Choudhury said.
Amidst an agrarian crisis of fragile farmer livelihoods and ecological unsustainability, supporting organic indigenous knowledge systems, including around heirloom seeds is the need of the hour, she said.
Organic farmer Yogita Mehra proposed growing one’s own food in urban areas to bridge the disconnect between today’s urban generation and nature, growing one’s own produce in a kitchen garden in urban spaces, as “nothing connects you more to your food than if you grow it yourself. Watching their parents engage with nature this way, children will also be greatly encouraged to take up the practice. Restaurants in Goa can also aid in this sustainable endeavour by attempting to alter their menus to highlight the local seasonal ingredients,” Mehra said.