Farmers on a mission to promote a forgotten native rice variety in Madurai region

‘Thillainayagam’, a native rice variety with its origin traced to the integrated Madurai region comprising Madurai, Sivaganga, Ramanathapuram and Virudhunagar districts, is now being promoted by farmers and doctors for its nutritional richness and importance.

Vaiyai Organic Farmers’ Group, which has taken up the work of taking the rice variety to more farmers and consumers, recently conducted an event in Melavalavu to educate farmers on its importance and need to increase its cultivation.

Gopalan, president, Melavalavu Farmers-Producers’ Association, said this variety of rice was mentioned even in Sangam literature for its importance in the integrated Madurai region.

With the introduction of foreign and hybrid varieties over the years, Thillainayagam rice became irrelevant and even went out of existence in the last 30 years, he added.

Following the intervention of natural farming enthusiasts and farmers a few years ago, the remnants of the variety of paddy were identified in some villages in the region and seeds were preserved, he noted.

“Learning about the importance and the qualities of the native variety from senior farmers, we distributed the seeds among interested farmers to promote its cultivation. As part of the promotion, food festivals and farmers meetings were organised to educate farmers on the significance of the variety,” Mr. Gopalan said.

As the paddy variety showed a good yield, even equal to some of the hybrid varieties grown using fertilizers, the farmers were positive about its results, he said.

Above all, the results of the variety’s sample tests which were done at the National Agro Foundation and the National Institute of Food Technology, Entrepreneurship and Management, Thanjavur, revealed that the variety was rich in protein, fibre and carbohydrates, said G. Sathya Balan, Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology, Madurai Medical College.

He said the researchers found that Thillainayagam variety resembled Dhan, the highly nutritious rice variety grown widely in Orissa. “As this rice variety contains 7.15% protein and 78.25% carbohydrates, in addition to minerals like potassium, iron, calcium, zinc, phosphorous, manganese and copper, it can be described as a variety with high nutritional value,” he added.

“The rich polyphenolic content in the rice variety helps improve the immune system,” said Mr. Sathya Balan.

Mr. Gopalan said though they had not sought the State government’s help in promoting and preserving the indigenous variety, its involvement could help spread the information faster and wider.