Maharashtra: Next time check before you buy Wada Kolam rice

If you like eating the fragrant, organic Wada Kolam rice available off the shelves, then check before you buy, as there are chances that rice cultivated in states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka may be misbranded and sold as that grown in Wada taluka in the neighbouring Palghar district.

In a written reply to a question by Latur legislator Amit Vilasrao Deshmukh in the state legislative assembly on Thursday, agriculture minister Chandrakantdada Patil admitted that the state government was probing the sale of rice grown in other states as Wada Kolam. "Orders have been issued to investigate this issue and submit a report," he added.

Deshmukh had asked the state government if the rice grown in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka was being misbranded as the popular Wada Kolam rice, which is indigenous to Maharashtra, and sold in markets ranging from Mumbai to the United States. He noted that since this duplicate rice was passed off as the original, there was a chance that the Wada Kolam variety would be wiped off as it did not get the expected rates.

"Wada Kolam is a variety of rice that is grown only in Wada taluka. Farmers are unable to afford to cultivate it as duplicate varieties of rice are sold in the market in that name. Farmers who grow Wada Kolam suffer from rising production costs and falling sale prices… consumers who do not know the taste of the original Wada Kolam rice often mistake misbranded varieties to be the real variety," said Anil Patil, an award-winning farmer from Wada and a member of the state commission for agricultural prices.

Patil said to preserve and revive cultivation of this variety of rice, they were demanding a geographical indicator (GI) tag, seeking that cultivators mechanise the process to reduce manpower costs and farmers be encouraged to cultivate this.

At present, Wada Kolam is grown on around 2,000-hectare land in Wada taluka and each hectare yields around 30 quintals of yield, which is less than that of other rice varieties. Patil noted that Wada Kolam was organic as chemical fertilizers could not be used in the cultivation process, unlike other varieties.