KALANAMAK RICE

• India rules the global scented rice trade through basmati. In the last 15 years, the area under its cultivation has remained at 0.5-0.6 million hectares.
• Production has stagnated at 1-1.5 million tonnes.
• This scented rice variety cannot be grown beyond stipulated tracts in Haryana, Punjab & Uttaranchal.
• The global scented rice market is growing at 12% per annum, but India seems to have few aromatic varieties to offer.
• The undivided Uttar Pradesh region has already lost the germplasm of 20 non-basmati scented varieties after the onset of the Green Revolution.
• Only 8 such varieties are cultivated & are protected through scientist-farmer participation.
• The prominent one is "Kalanamak".
• Outshining basmati Kalanamak, a non-basmati scented rice variety grown in UP is so named because of its black husk.
• Kalanamak easily outclasses the top variety of Basmati for the primary trait of aroma.
• Its elongation after cooking, a trait that is the major determinant of prices in the international market is also greater.
• Kalanamak's elongation to pre-elongation ratio is 2.2-2.7, in different basmati rice, it is 1.8-2.0.
• The great head rice recovery after polishing adds to its profitability.
• This recovery rate in Basmati is 40-45% whereas in Kalanamak it is 65%.
• Salt, alkalinity Kalanamak outclasses Basmati in agronomical abilities. It's a successful adapter to soils characterised by higher salt concentration & high pH.
• Kalanamak is highly resistant to notorious, common rice diseases like panicle blast, stem rot & brown rot. Bacterial blight is quite rarely observed.
• Drought tolerance Kalanamak is normally grown under rain-fed conditions & in uplands.
• The water requirement is quite low compared to Basmati. It doesn't need standing water during transplantation, it goes through a unique process of double transplantation.
• The first transplanting of a 30-35 day-old seedling is done in a bunch of 5-6 seedlings.
• After 25-30 days, these seedlings are uprooted, separated from each other & again transplanted.
• During drought, when rice yield decreased up to 50% in almost all varieties, Kalanamak is unaffected.

• Kalanamak is traditionally grown using no fertilizer, herbicide, or pesticide, making it suitable for organic cultivation.
• The global organic rice market is growing at a compound annual rate of 30%.
• Improved cultivars of Kalanamak easily outperform Basmati. The input & labour cost is meagre, while the yield is almost 40-50% higher.
• The net return amount of Kalanamak is ₹22,447 per hectare which for Basmati is ₹12, 564/per hectare. This calculation is based on the lowest possible price estimates.
• Kalanamak is grown in the Tarai belt which comprises Siddharthnagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Maharajganj, Basti, Gonda, and Gorakhpur.
• The total area under Kalanamak's cultivation is about 4,000 hectares.
• If proper care is not taken at this stage, this rice could soon lose its germplasm.