Karnataka drought | Why famous rice curator Syed Ghani stopped sowing paddy

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Minutes after you veer off the sprawling Bengaluru-Mysuru Expressway, a lush foliage descends, followed by a burst of colours and striking geophony.

You enter Mandya, the Rice Bowl of Karnataka, around 100 km from Bengaluru. The topography looks more or less intact and alluring, but it’s not what it ought to be on the ground. It's December, when Mandya should have had spring in its steps with paddy harvesting, but what you see are April-like hues.

A failed monsoon, dried-up Cauvery, and a searing summer have left some taluks and towns like Malavalli and Maddur, reeling under drought, forcing many farmers to give up rice cultivation — at least this year and even probably next year.

Mandya is in the throes of despair. Some farmers here say this is the "worst drought they have seen in their lifetime". Many farmers have switched to less water-intensive crops like ragi, other varieties of millets, and even casuarinas.

Meet Syed Ghani Khan, the largest private collector of paddy

Among them is Syed Ghani Khan, the state’s famous rice researcher, or 'rice curator', as he loves to call himself. For the uninitiated, Ghani runs the Rice Diversity Centre, and owns the largest private collection of paddy — over 1,300 varieties. At his centre, where he also lives with his family, in Kirugavalu near Malavalli taluk in Mandya district, Syed Ghani grows and conserves a multitude of paddy varieties painstakingly collected over the past few decades from different parts of the world. The centre also draws researchers, curators, scientists and farmers across India and other countries like Japan and Malaysia.

Aside these, Syed Ghani is a farmer himself, cultivating paddy, mangoes, millets, pulses, fruits, legumes and what not. In fact, his family has been growing paddy for over 150 years.

A year like none other

For Syed Ghani, there has never been a year like this. For the first time in his life, he chose not to cultivate paddy on his 15-acre farm. The reasons are obvious: poor southwest monsoon plus a depleted Cauvery. The grim story is almost the same for the rest of Karnataka, even in non-river basins.

The numbers tell a grave story: Out of the 236 taluks in the state, 223 have been declared drought affected. And 196 are severely drought affected. In a recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah sought ₹18,177.44 crore as Central assistance to undertake drought relief work in the state.

Sitting at his Laurie Baker-ish home in the wedge of a farm dotted with (now-barren) paddy fields and mango groves, Syed Ghani said this had been a brutal year so far.

“For the first time in my life, I decided not to sow paddy," he told The Federal. "When July passed with no water or rain, I thought of harvesting paddy in September, and that too did not happen. Some say they have seen such droughts earlier, but, for me, this is a first, forcing us to leave the land barren. The situation is more grave than what people in Bengaluru and elsewhere think."

Wider trend

Syed Ghani went on to say many farmers in his taluk (Malavalli) could not cultivate paddy this year. “They (farmers) are in deep misery. With the weather wreaking havoc, they have no clue how they can run their families. Some of them have moved away from paddy [switching to ragi, millets], but that may not be a long-term solution," added Syed Ghani, who is now planning to grow pulses or millets. Only a miracle can swing Malavalli's fortunes, he said ruefully.

In the catchment and closer Cauvery Basin areas, things are better, marginally. Farmers who have taken the risk and means have gone ahead and sown paddy and are fetching good prices.

"Yeah, there has been no rainfall. The tail-end areas (Malavalli) and even Maddur were affected in comparison," Ashoka, Joint Director Agriculture (Mandya), told The Federal. "Paddy farmers elsewhere in the district have grown paddy and they are getting good returns. This year, the price of paddy has gone up. The arable/cultivated area has obviously come down, and we have managed to provide sufficient water."

"The overall drought situation in the state is grim, with both kharif and rabi crops getting affected," Ashoka added. "As far as Mandya is concerned, summer paddy is getting no water. Another major worry is sugarcane, a standing crop. At least 30 percent of the farmers are solely relying on water from Cauvery/Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) dam. With the sources drying up and no rain expected in the next four months, most farmers don't know what to do. It's a [really] scary scenario."

Weather vagaries

Farmers face uncertain times with no rain in sight and other weather vagaries. For instance, 2022 was marooned in floods.

“I am planning to grow pulses or intermediate crops. Even that, I really doubt. Even the northwest monsoon (during which the region usually does not get much rain) came a cropper. We have no idea what is going to be the same next year. I really don't know if it's feasible for farmers to grow paddy with such fickle weather conditions. If farmers are switching to casuarina, even in a place like Mandya, just imagine the severity of the situation," said Syed Ghani.

There has been no government relief either, leaving farmers in the lurch. As ironic as it may seem, Mandya, one of the most fertile districts in the state, has been reporting the highest number of farmer suicides.

“We have had many representations to the government, but there is no response. Farmers are in total distress. Getting labour is another big issue. If you look at the fields, you see the elderly toiling hard. The young are moving to Mysuru/ Bengaluru to work in garment factories. I wonder how many families will take agriculture forward in the next coming years," said Ghani, who also has over 100 varieties of mangoes in his orchard.

“Hopefully, I will have a good mango season. The trees have started flowering, and probably by February, we will start getting fruits. Few would know there are varieties of mangoes that taste like sweet lime or cumin. Nature has given us a lot, but what we need is to preserve and conserve,” he observed.

Orchard-repository

A farm that houses over 1,300 varieties of rice, over 100 varieties of mangoes, mango trees that are over 200 years old, and a biodiversity hotpsot with insects, birds, flora and fauna, Ghani's orchard is a repository in itself. Ghani travels across the country, talking to paddy farmers, sharing and exchanging ideas, seeds and techniques. The diverse rice collection is seen to be believed: there are red, black, green an brown rice. For the record, the Rakthashali variant he has is over 2,000 years old.

Standing beneath a mango tree (we wonder how old it must be) against a fading sun, Syed Ghani recounted a poignant tale involving his grandmother, memories, driving home the larger point of preserving genetic diversity.

“Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. That is why I am trying to keep them preserved," he said. "See, there was a mango variant called Amini, my grandmother's favorite. There was a huge demand for that particular variety. It was the toast of the season and the area. She was emotionally attached to the tree. You know something happened. Soon after her death, the mango tree also fell. Effectively, the variety was also dead."

Any loss of crop variety is irreversible. "Once it's gone, like people, it's gone forever," he observed.

From paddy to mangoes, many of our favourite, indigenous foods are increasingly at risk of getting wiped out. That is where the likes of Syed Ghani stand apart.

To twist the phrase a bit, you reap only if you sow.