Kasargod farmer wins Padma award for preserving 650 varieties of paddy

Thiruvananthapuram: Kasargod farmer Sathyanarayana Beleri, who has been selected for Padma Shri, is preserving 650 odd varieties of rice, which includes varieties not just from India but from countries like Japan and Philippines.

A native of Nettenige village close to Dakshina Kannada, Beleri started his rice conservation with seeds of Rajakayame rice that he received in 2006 from Gandhian Ramachandra Rao of Cherkady in Udupi, who was an organic farmer.

Interactions with known rice conservationist B K Devaraya of Belthangady in Dakshina Kannada was also an inspiration for the Beleri is rice conservation. He was recommended for the Padma award by the Managaluru Krishi Vigyan Kendra.

Since his agricultural land is not ideal for paddy cultivation, Beleri preserves the 650 varieties with help of an artificial paddy field that he maintains in around 25 cents of land. He is mainly growing rubber.

A much delighted Beleri told DH over phone that he was having an interest for gleaning and paddy preservation right from his young ages. "Apart from preserving 650 odd varieties, I myself have developed two varieties of black rice with short and long periods of harvest. Registration process of those were progressing," said the 50 year old farmer.

Beleri is carrying out the rice conservation by sowing ten to 20 seeds of each paddy variety in paper cups with pot mixture. After around ten days the seedlings are transplanted to polybags with compost mixture. Once flowering takes place, those will be shifted to artificial paddy fields made using tarpaulin sheet.

Beleri, who travelled across the country to collect the seeds, also used to distribute seeds of various varieties from his collection. Beleri's collection includes rice varieties of different colours, paddy that grows on saline water and those which grows up to 13 feet. Chitteni, Raaja Mudi, Aktikaaya, Mysuru Mallige, Jeerige Sanna...thus goes the list of paddy varieties that he is conserving.

Impressed over Beleri's rice preservation activities, the National Gene Bank in Delhi had also given him 30 varieties of rice. He is also a recipient of the 'Plant genome saviour community award' in 2021.

Last year, a farmer from Wayanad in Kerala, Cheruvayal Raman, who has preserved over 50 varieties of paddy, was conferred with the Padma Shri award.