Assam 145;nose146;: Aromatic rice goes global

8216;8216;Joha, which is a scented variety of winter rice that grows only in Assam, has already caught the attention of buyers from abroad. Given the trends of globalisation, the government has launched a new project to promote the cultivation of this variety with an eye on the international market,8217;8217; said Dr Bangshidhar Kalita, Senior Agriculture Development Officer with the Assam government.

This project, which essentially looks at cultivating organic joha rice, currently has 92 hectares under its care, with 162 farmers producing 133 metric tonnes of joha paddy this year. Of this, Kalita said, 92 metric tonnes was being picked up by Sunstars Overseas Ltd, an organic rice exporting agency based at Sonepat, Haryana, for sale in various countries.

Though Assam has 17,450 hectares under joha, the pilot organic project8212;now in its second year8212;is spread over three districts: Lakhimpur, Sonitpur and Darrang. 8220;But we have already drawn up plans to expand the cultivation area of organic joha to 200 hectares in the next couple of years,8217;8217; Kalita added.

To this end, the government has organised a series of training workshops for these 162 farmers, while 40 of them were sent on exposure trips to Uttaranchal to see how farmers there were cultivating basmati rice.

Assam, incidentally, grows five to six varieties of joha rice. Only one, known as kunkuni joha, has been taken up for organic farming. 8216;8216;This variety can well become India8217;s second wonder-rice8212;after Basmati8212;to make an impact on the international level,8217;8217; said Kalita.

8216;8216;Joha rice has already made a very good impression at several international festivals, particularly among European rice importers at the world-famous BIOFACH in Germany last year,8217;8217; said Bidyut Barua, regional manager of APEDA. 8216;8216;They were all the more excited to know it was organic.8217;8217;

Apart from organic joha, two other varieties of rice capturing the imagination of the average Assamese farmer are komal chaul and bora chaul. Komal chaul, nicknamed magic rice, doesn8217;t even require cooking: It just needs to be soaked in water for 30 minutes. Bora chaul, on the other hand, is a sticky rice which can be eaten as porridge too, but is more commonly used powdered for Bihu delicacies.

In fact, Bijoy Krishna Handique, till recently Union minister of state for defence, who is an MP from Assam, had last year proposed introduction of komal chaul as the best possible food for the Indian army.

On the domestic front, several food packaging units have already created a good market with all the three varieties of rice now becoming available at most retail grocery outlets in Assam.