“Achche Din” through Medicinal Rice Revolution

Excerpts from my Field Diary (July 2014 Onwards) Part-2

“Achche Din” through Medicinal Rice Revolution

Pankaj Oudhia

Last week I interacted with three groups working separately on different aspects of medicinal plants during consultation session. The First group was of the researchers interested in new research. They took keen interest in Medicinal Rice Research. On specific picture available through Flickr (please see below) we discussed over 6 hours.

I requested them to interact with the Traditional Healers for this Formulation and after getting their consent start your research and clinical trials for developing Medicinal Rice based Remedies.

The second group was of Innovative herb growers from Telengana. They were in search of new profitable medicinal crop other than Safed Musli and Stevia. I suggested them many crops based on their requirement but finally they showed interest in Medicinal Rice.

“ There are thousands of Indigenous Medicinal Rice types and much discussion is required to select two to three types of Medicinal Rice for commercial cultivation. The cultivation must be on Vedic Methods. “I suggested

The Third group was of marketing experts. They were interested in marketing of lesser known but effective herbal products in Global Market. Over 8 hours of discussion resulted in list of 80 potential herbal products. Indigenous Medicinal Rice types were among the selected products.

During Jungle visit few days back an idea came into my mind to invite all three groups at one place and suggest them to work as team on Medicinal Rice Business. Innovative Herb Growers will grow the Rice by adopting Traditional Allelopathic Knowledge and Vedic Farming Methods. The Researchers will develop new herbal products and marketing experts will market it. Without any delay I called them from Jungle and they agreed for discussion on the next day. I returned to the city mid night and after short sleep joined the meeting.

They were completely unknown from each other but very soon they decided to work as team in this project and they requested me to act as mentor as well as coordinator. This is positive step and I am expecting much from them.

This team will focus on 3 types of Medicinal Rice. In Chhattisgarh from where Rice i.e. Oryza sativa has originated there are thousands of Rice having immense Medicinal Potential. The natives as well as Traditional Healers have in depth knowledge about Therapeutic values of Rice. I am documenting this knowledge since year 1990 and you can find the academic contributions worth plus 1 TB on Medicinal Rice through Internet.

Innovative farmers tired of cheating and scams in Herbal Farming can start focusing on this new field. 
Researchers tired of Re-Search can join the hands of Farmers and there is no shortage of marketing experts.

India has seen the Green Revolution. Now it’s time for Medicinal Rice Revolution.   

(Pankaj Oudhia is Biodiversity Expert and can be reached through pankajoudhia@gmail.com)