Calangute: From at least 60 varieties of traditional rice grown in Goa before the Green Revolution, to only four or five varieties grown now, Claude Alvares, director of Goa Foundation, said that indigenous agricultural practices should be encouraged.
He was speaking at a discussion at Pilerne.
“The Adivasi people follow millennia-old agricultural and agro-ecological practices, producing rice varieties full of nutrients and 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, for which only traditional Goan korgut rice and other local varieties can be used,” Alvares said.
‘Seed Stories’ (2024), a documentary by Chitrangada Choudhury, which depicts Odisha’s Adivasi communities’ efforts to protect over 1,000 varieties of rice was screened at Goa museum recently.
