This conservator of agricultural diversity has saved many rice varieties from the brink of extinction Premium

A childhood passion for heritage conservation and an unfulfilled desire of chalking out a career as a museologist culminated in this farmer conceiving his own museum -- of rice varieties -- which is one of its kind in Karnataka.

A childhood passion for heritage conservation and an unfulfilled desire of chalking out a career as a museologist culminated in this farmer conceiving his own museum -- of rice varieties -- which is one of its kind in Karnataka.

As a student, Syed Ghani Khan of Kirugavalu in Malavalli taluk of Mandya district nurtured a desire of entering the field of archaeology and museums and pursued his studies to in the hope of becoming the curator of a museum.

But fate willed otherwise and family commitments made him switch to agriculture in 1996 and tend to his plot of nearly 15 acres in Kirugavalu.

But the zest for conservation and the curiosity in him led Ghani Khan to explore the world of plants and understand the agro-diversity of India. And to his dismay he discovered that the famed agro-diversity of the country was fast being supplanted by the growing preference for monoculture and the hybrid varieties of crops developed in laboratories.

The preference for hybrid varieties with thrust on higher yield has invariably led to the emergence of monoculture and is also a contributory factor for hundreds of indigenous varieties of rice being pushed to the brink and is no longer cultivated. ‘’It is this realisation that made me collect indigenous or rare varieties of rice from across Karnataka and the country and preserve their seeds and the exercise commenced sometime in 2000-01,’’ recalled Ghani Khan.

This was preceded by his relative gifting him a sack of nearly 40 strains of paddy and Ghani Khan realised that he knew nothing of their nature or origin and nor were the agricultural scientists aware of some of them. Also, sometime after taking to farming of his ancestral property, Ghani Khan’s health suffered a setback and this was attributed to the chemicals and pesticides with which he used to come in contact during agricultural activity.

‘’It was then that I decided to eschew the so-called modern agriculture with its thrust on the use of chemicals and opted for organic farming sometime during the year 2000,’’ recalled Ghani Khan.