Padma awardee Sathyanarayana Beleri of Kerala's Kasargod is recognised for protecting and researching various traditional rice varieties.
File photo of Sathyanarayana Beleri. (Supplied)
Kerala farmers who advocate traditional farming practices and work for the protection of native seeds are a confused lot.
On one hand, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union government has chosen two among them for two consecutive years to be conferred the Padma Shri.
On the other hand, the BJP-led dispensation has been pushing for genetically modified (GM) crops — which these farmers oppose — with the supporting claim that it would ring in a second Green Revolution in the country.
Exactly a year after septuagenarian paddy farmer Cheruvayal Raman from Wayanad in Kerala was chosen for the prestigious civilian honour for preserving 55 rare native rice varieties faced with extinction, Kasaragod’s Sathyanarayana Beleri has been chosen for the same recognition.
Curiously, the two farmers are part of the anti-GM movement in Kerala and oppose blind modernisation in farming practices. They also favour organic cultivation that eschews the use of fertilisers and chemicals.
Anti-GM activists thus fail to find the real reason behind the move to award these farmers.
Beleri gets a green saviours award. (Supplied)
When celebrated veterinary scientist Sosamma Ipe of Kerala was chosen in 2022 for the Padma Shri, people from all walks of life welcomed the move.
She had done exemplary work protecting the native dwarf cow Vachoor, from near-total extinction.
Ever since the award, she has become a permanent invitee to BJP functions in and around Thrissur in central Kerala.
In fact, she was one of those who shared the stage with Modi during his visit to Thrissur three weeks ago to inaugurate a mammoth meeting of his party’s women cadres.
Despite persuasion by the BJP, Cheruvayal Raman, however, is still skipping political meetings organised by the party, though he occasionally attends agriculture-related events organised by the Congress and the CPI(M) in Kerala.
Critics say that it has been a practice for the BJP to choose those who are outside the party for such honours, and use them later as instruments to influence.
As in the case of Raman, Beleri does not subscribe to any specific party ideology. His contributions are also exemplary, though his fame has been confined only to his native district.
However, independent observers feel the Union government is attempting to make some political gains by conferring him the recognition.
“Kasaragod and its Kannada-speaking northern edges are traditional citadels of the BJP and the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh). Conferring such an honour on a farmer from a backward region would boost the morale of the rest of the farmers there,” the Rashtriya Kisan Maha Sangh’s South India coordinator of PT John told South First.
“So, the party is calculating to capitalise on that goodwill in the fast-approaching Lok Sabha election,” he added.
John claimed the BJP would also attempt to capitalise on Baleri’s recognition among voters in what was the erstwhile Mangaluru-South Canara belt of Karnataka.
“I am not discounting the tremendous work by Beleri,” adds John.
Kasaragod-based activist and documentary filmmaker MA Rahman said the whole region felt happy about Beleri’s recognition and it might inspire many to join his league.
“There must be attempts by the BJP to get him to be a part of its political handbag. We hope he will not accept any such offer given the kind of appreciation he receives from people in his region cutting across religion, language, and political barriers,” he said.
When South First reached out to him, Beleri said his focus was always on preserving rice varieties for future generations, and that partisan politics never influenced him.
He said he never sought recognition while embarking on his mission to preserve rice varieties.
Beleri is a native of Nettenige village in Belloor Grama Panchayat in Kasaragod. He feels his whole district is being honoured by the recognition, the fourth-highest civilian award in the country.
His rare achievement in conserving 650 traditional paddy varieties stands out because he did it on land that was not conducive for paddy cultivation.
Wayanad tribal farmer Cheruvayal Raman who has evolved as a living paddy gene bank. (K A Shaji/South First)
He has created a 25-cent artificial paddy field using tarpaulin to grow the different rice varieties.
While engaging in cultivation, he sets aside a major portion of the produce, spread over 10 cents, to feed birds and rats.
Beleri then grows the rest of the varieties in paper cups and bags and protects them with nets to conserve them for the common good. Part of the effort is preserving Japanese and Philippine rice varieties.
He has collected varieties from across India, from faraway Assam and Manipur to next-door Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
There are different paddy varieties, some growing up to 13 feet. His priority is always those that grow in saline water and water-scarce areas.
After developing the seedlings in paper cups, he shifts them to grow bags. Once the paddy saplings reach the required height, he shifts the grow bags to the 30-sq-metre tarpaulin-laid paddy field.
The tarp helps him save water and maintains optimum moisture in the grow bags. He repeats these steps yearly for all 650 rice varieties because seeds do not survive if not sown within a year.
Sathyanarayana Beleri
Impressed by the technique, the National Gene Bank in Delhi gave Beleri 30 rare rice varieties for safe protection.
The Thrissur-based Kerala Agricultural University and the Shivamogga-based University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences have already used his paddy varieties in their breeding programmes.
In November 2021, the Union Ministry of Agriculture honoured Beleri by conferring on him the prestigious ‘Plant Genome Saviour Farmer Reward’ for conserving traditional rice varieties.
Beleri says he became a rice conservationist after he visited the organic farming-promoting father-son duo BK Devaraya and BK Parameshwara Rao in Belthangady in the erstwhile South Canara district in 2009.
They had 150 varieties of rice. They gave him seeds of 100 varieties.
He travelled to Shivamogga, Davanagere, Mandya, Mysuru, Wayanad, Pattambi, Kuttanand, and Rajasthan in search of different rice varieties in the following years.
He grew his gene bank by bartering and collecting directly by engaging in frequent travel.
As a result of his efforts, we now know that the Kagga variety grows in saline water, while Edikkuni rice does not rot even if submerged for 20 days.
Vellathovan from Kerala and Puttabatta from Karnataka do well in water-scarce fields, while Karigajavali from Belagavi is famous as the black basmati for its strong aroma and colour.
Beleri has paddies that are harvested in 60 days and those in 180 days. His days as a gleaner taught him the importance of each grain.
“One grain, when sown, gives us 100 grains. A hundred grains give 500 g of rice; when 500 g of grains are sown, we get 10kg, and 10kg gives us one quintal of rice. All this within two years,” he said.
Now, the locals call him Seeding Sathya. “The award makes me a little scared. I have to be more responsible,” said Beleri.
He said the exposure to different rare rice varieties was achieved with the help extended by Shree Padre, the editor of Adike Patrike, a popular agriculture magazine in Karnataka.
Beleri is credited with introducing the Rajakayame variety of rice, boosting production and conservation across three states: Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu.
He started work in this area about 15 years ago. In addition to rice, he conserves areca nuts, nutmeg, and black pepper seeds.
He has fostered research and conservation by providing 50 rice varieties to research centres and distributing free rice seeds to farmers.
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