“I had to pool the varieties from independent farmers, scientists like Deb, the Chinsurah Rice Research Institute, NGOs, even staffers who collected the varieties from their native villages,” said Pal, who travelled to the remote interiors of the state—Midnapore, East and West Dinajpur, Bankura, North and South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Bardhaman, Jalpaiguri, even Bihar—to hunt for the surviving varieties.

His effort has provided exceptional results, as the yield is expected to quash popular misconceptions about the productivity of the indigenous varieties compared to the HYVs. Under the same soil conditions, local varieties like Bahurupi fared better than their HYV counterparts like Swarna Kamal and Minikit in terms of grain yield. So a full bloom Khejurchari rice plant on the ATC farm had 75 tillers or branches. In fact, none of the rice varieties had less than 25 tillers which is comparable with the HYVs.

The number of grains borne by a mature Bahurupi, a local variety, is 450, which easily scores over popular HYVs. More importantly, unlike the HYVs, the local varieties yield hay, which is used for cattle feed and in mushroom farms. So local varieties make for better economic sense.

“Even if the HYVs give a yield of 720 kg in one bigha plot and the local varieties yield around 480 kg per bigha, the latter leads to higher profit margins. This is because the cost of inputs—pesticides and fertilisers—for the HYVs is significantly higher than for the local varieties,” said Bahadur Chetri, one of the two farmers roped in for the project.

... contd.