Out of 30 landraces of black rice available in India, in Odisha, we have 6 black rice varieties available in our indigenous seed germplasm of Bargarh district of Odisha.
One local variety of black rice is “Kalabati” which grows up to 5 to 6.5 feet in height. The duration of Kalabati is 150 days. Medium type of land(Mal) is suitable for growing of Kalabati. The color of its leaves is a mix of green and purple color.
The number of tillers per plant is minimum 20 to 30. The total duration of the crop is 150 days so it can be called as a long duration type rice. After 2 to 3 months of its growth when the plant reaches a height of 2 to 3 feet, it is pruned once during its main vegetative period of growth to encourage more numbers of productive tillers which increases the total yield and productivity per unit area.
The pruned green and purple mix leaves of black rice plant are used to feed the milking cows and buffaloes. There is an increase in the amount of production of milk is observed after giving black rice leaves harvested after 2 to 3 months of crop growth as a highly nutritious (rich in antioxidants and iron) feed to cows and buffaloes.
Rice Panicle are harvested after a period of 5 months starting transplanting in June- July till harvesting the black rice grains in January -February. Low temperature during the winter season from the month’s of September up to January is highly necessary to increase the number of productive tillers and total grain yield of black rice per acre.
The black rice “Kalabati” (local Variety of Odisha) can only be grown once in a year during Kharif season, Whereas Manipuri black rice Chakhao is grown twice as well as thrice in a year due to shorter duration of crop growing period.
It is transplanted under SRI(system of rice intensification) or Row transplanting. The traditional way of cultivating black rice using broadcasting (Bihida dhan) process can consume 30-40 kg seeds per acre.
Seed rate is 5 kg/acre under SRI as recommended by expert’s group of team ABHINAVAKRISHI Sambalpur. Seedlings are transplanted @ 25cm(row to row) x 25cm(plant to plant) to maintain 64,000 seedlings/acre.
On behalf of the whole team of ABHINAVAKRISHI Sambalpur, we are promoting black rice all over India for the benefit of our small and marginal farmers as it’s a highly beneficial crop.
Although its yield is comparatively very low(12 to 15 quintal/acre), the price of its seed and rice is sold above 200 Indian rupees per Kilogram in the retail market all over India which is highest among all rice grown in India.
The benefit-cost ratio of this variety is more than 10:1 per acre whereas normal MTU 1001,1010 rice is 1.5-2:1 in Bargarh district of Odisha.
Due to purple color of its leaves, the insect’s groups are least attracted to the plant. As this variety is highly tolerant to all most all kinds of rice diseases like bacterial leaf blight, blast, brown spots and BPH (BROWN PLANTHOPPER) our farmers grow it in medium type land with good water drainage facilities without using any chemical pesticides and fertilizers.
This variety is only grown under Organic management practices with a small dosage of biofertilizers and biopesticides. Application of UREA (NITROGEN FERTILIZER) is observed harmful to this crop as the height is up to minimum 5-6 feet. The plant show’s lodging of tillers and yield is reduced due to difficulties in the harvesting of the crop while using chemical fertilizers like UREA.
We have already distributed the seeds of black rice Kalabati in Punjab, Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Odisha, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, New Delhi NCR, Uttarakhand for cultivation among farmers who are mostly small and marginal.
As black rice is rich in protein, iron, and antioxidants it is sold at minimum Rs 200 to Rs 800₹ per Kg across India.
We are maintaining a stock of black rice seeds(Kalabati and Manipuri ‘Chakhao ) which we would like to distribute among interested farmers groups across India for the benefit of small and marginal Farmers and to provide highly nutritious natural black rice to people’s mostly suffering from diabetics, kidney, heart diseases , cancer as it is rich source of protein and antioxidants.
Waiting for Your Kind Response to Make India a better Country.
For purchase of black rice & seed contact
Biswajit Pradhan (M-8249817078)
Jai Bharat Jai Kisan
Thanks & Best Regards:
Abhilash Padhan( BSC AGRICULTURE)
Abhinava Krishi, Sambalpur