INDIGENOUS RICE VARIETIES            

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Context

• As many as 12 folk varieties of Indian rice examined by researchers can supplement the nutritional demand of important fatty acids in undernourished mothers, a recent study has claimed.

Fold Rice varieties

• In India, many folk varieties like Athikaraya, Dudh-sar, Kayame, Neelam samba, Srihati, Maharaji and Bhejri are known in folk medicine to enhance milk production in lactating women.
• Other traditional varieties like Kelas, DudheBolta and Bhutmoori are rich in iron and can be included in diet of mothers to treat anaemia.
• High-yield hybrids pushed out indigenous rice varieties and many of these varieties, called landraces are nearing extinction in India.
• Tilak Chandan is a thick, small-grained rice famous for its fragrance and cultivated in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnore and Rampur.
• Bindli, a once famous rice variety of Uttar Pradesh.
• Kalanamak, a scented rice variety grown in Uttar Pradesh, is fast going out of cultivation.
• Bao-dhaan (red rice) from Assam was sent to the US in March 2021.
• The iron-rich red rice is grown in the Brahmaputra valley of Assam, without the use of any chemical fertilizer.
• Seven rice varieties of North East India — Meghalaya lakang, Chingphourel, Manuikhamei, Kemenyakepeyu, Wainem, Thekrulha, and Koyajang — has the potential to resist leaf and neck blast disease in rice plants.

• https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/food/folk-rice-researchers-spot-dozen-indian-paddy-varieties-that-can-boost-nourishment-79027