By Avijit Biswas
Bhagalpur, Bihar, India: Famous for its taste and aroma the flattened rice (Chura aka Poha or Chiwda) prepared from Katarni variety of paddy would be made available to dignitaries as gift from state government on occasion of Makar Sankranti this year.
Three quintal bitten rice prepared from organically grown Katarni variety of paddy was sent to Delhi on Friday by local administration for making available exclusive variety of flattened rice to dignitaries including President of India, Prime Minister besides other VIP’s in national capital.
Prabhat Kumar Singh, deputy director, Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) took the consignment of flattened rice to Bihar Bhawan, Delhi from where gift packs would be reached to dignitaries. Nearly 200 dignitaries listed for gift packs of Katarni flattened rice also include dignitaries of state to whom gift packs would be reached subsequently.
Sending Jardalu, an exclusive mango variety of this region, to dignitaries from here as state gift is an old tradition being followed since years. However sending gift pack of Katarni flattened rice, a new addition, was introduced after Katarni paddy received GI tag few years back.
Last year also Katrani flattened rice was sent to dignitaries as state gift on occasion of Makar Sankranti. After meticulous selection, taking into consideration quality, bitten rice was procured by district administration for purpose of sending gift packs.
Maximum quantity of flattened rice was procured from two farmers of Abha Ratanpur village located in Sultanganj block of this district. As per information both the farmers under supervision of Bihar Agricultural University (BAU) scientists had taken up organic farming of Katarni.
The committee that selected bitten rice for gift packs consisted officials of local agriculture department besides scientists of BAU. As per an official who did not wanted to be quoted branding of Katarni variety of rice and bitten rice is one of the main objectives behind sending gift packs to dignitaries.
It may be mentioned though Katarni variety of paddy has received GI tag however market potential of the variety in both domestic and overseas markets remains unexploited to a large extent. The measures initiated in past to ensure bigger domestic market besides ensuring presence of the variety in foreign markets had failed to yield desired result.
The Katarni growers in number of cases feel there is need of preparing comprehensive plan and taking concerted action for popularizing Katarni rice in domestic and overseas market.
