Farmers seek GI tag for Wada Kolam rice

Following the Dahanu-Gholvad chikoo fruit from Palghar district of Maharashtra obtaining Geographical Indicator (GI) tags, attempts are staying produced to get a GI tag for Wada Kolam rice, which is a unique fragrant wide range cultivated in the Wada taluka of the district.

On June 29, a closing application was produced with GI Registry for finding the tag. The GI Registry is a aspect of the Workplace of the Controller Normal of Patents, Layouts and Trade Marks.

Wada Kolam rice wide range is cultivated only in coastal Palghar district, which was carved out of the gigantic Thane district in 2014. Palghar has a unique agro-weather due to proximity to the Arabian sea as also to the woody Sahyadri mountain assortment. The fertile land also provides chikoo or sapota fruit, which acquired a GI tag in January 2017.

The effort to get the GI tag has been spearheaded by popular Intellectual Residence law firm Ganesh Hingmire and local farmer households from Wada taluka. Hingmire instructed BusinessLine that Wada Kolam rice is quite a lot sought following in the sector due to its flavour, hence many rice mill entrepreneurs mis-market their rice varieties as Wada Kolam. The GI tag to the rice wide range will give greater prices to the Wada farmers. It will carry traceability and accountability to the Wada Kolam rice trade.

Farmer Vaibhav Patil from Wada, secretary of the local farmer cooperative society that has carried out the information accumulating and track record in direction of obtaining the GI tag, mentioned that in all of Wada taluka only about 250 farmers cultivate the wide range in excess of about two,500 hectares of land. Given that the land is fertile, only cow dung is made use of as manure, no other chemical is made use of.

However, the wide range has a decrease generate, as out of 100 quintals of paddy only forty five quintals of polished rice gets developed, even though other varieties generate about 55 quintals. For that reason some farmers are fewer inclined to plant this wide range. These days, Wada farmers get ₹40 per kg. But if GI tag is acquired the fee could raise to ₹80-90 and the spot underneath Wada Kolam could very easily rise to five,000 hectares, he mentioned.