The Risota or Risotto, a northern Italian rice variety, is being cultivated in organic method by one Basetti China Gangadhar under the guidance of the progressive farmer Nagula Gangaram popularly known as Chinni Krishnudu, at Gutpa village in Makloor mandal.
“It is not cultivated anywhere in the country and we are raising it here as a challenge. The interesting thing is that we raised the nursery using rice grain and not paddy seed. Chief executive officer of Gajanan Rice Mills, Hithin Bhimani, brought one kg risota rice from an international rice exhibition held in Cologne in Germany. With which we raised the nursery and transplanted in a 60 square yards,” said Mr. Chinni Krishnudu.
Agriculture scientists in Prof. Jayashankar Agriculture University were surprised and initially did not believe it. However, after observing the crop they realised that the paddy nursery could be raised even with rice. The four-month-old crop is now about to be harvested. Since a lot of rice in the nursery was eaten away by ants in the beginning we are not expecting much quantity, he said.
The nursery was raised for 25 days before transplantation, like any other paddy variety. Water was also given to the crop like other paddy varieties. It has been transplanted amid the regular paddy varieties of 1010, Sona Masuri and BPT. Cow urine and dung, groundnut cake and neem seed powder were used as manure, said Mr. China Gangadhar.
Mr. Hithin said that he had brought one kg rice in October last as there was no seed put on display in the rice fair. Beside, international rules do not allow the seed to be brought to India.
Risota is used to prepare a special dish Risotto which is mostly consumed in northern Italy. The Risotto is a carbohydrate rich dish cooked with broth derived from meat, fish or vegetables.
Mr. Chinni Krishnudu who developed seed of several ancient varieties of rice is confident of popularising the risota seed in future as it has a good demand for export. However, he is not sure of exact quantity of its yield in Indian soils.
District Agriculture Officer M. Govind who visited the field on Friday praised the efforts of Mr. Chinni Krishnudu and Mr. Gangadhar in cultivating an exotic variety paddy experimentally against the risk.
