Farmers seek GI tag for Wada Kolam rice

Just after the Dahanu-Gholvad chikoo fruit from Palghar district of Maharashtra receiving Geographical Indication (GI) tags, endeavours are staying created to get a GI tag for Wada Kolam rice, which is a unique fragrant variety cultivated in the Wada taluka of the district.

On June 29, a closing application was created with GI Registry for acquiring the tag. The GI Registry is a section of the Workplace of the Controller Typical of Patents, Models and Trade Marks.

Wada Kolam rice variety is cultivated only in coastal Palghar district, which was carved out of the gigantic Thane district in 2014. Palghar has a unique agro-local climate thanks to proximity to the Arabian sea as also to the woody Sahyadri mountain assortment. The fertile land also creates chikoo or sapota fruit, which gained a GI tag in January 2017.

The effort to get the GI tag has been spearheaded by distinguished Intellectual House law firm Ganesh Hingmire and nearby farmer family members from Wada taluka. Hingmire advised BusinessLine that Wada Kolam rice is incredibly substantially sought right after in the industry thanks to its flavour, as a result numerous rice mill homeowners mis-promote their rice versions as Wada Kolam. The GI tag to the rice variety will give much better costs to the Wada farmers. It will deliver traceability and accountability to the Wada Kolam rice trade.

Farmer Vaibhav Patil from Wada, secretary of the nearby farmer cooperative modern society that has undertaken the knowledge gathering and background toward receiving the GI tag, reported that in all of Wada taluka only about 250 farmers cultivate the variety about about two,five hundred hectares of land. Considering the fact that the land is fertile, only cow dung is utilized as manure, no other chemical is utilized.

Having said that, the variety has a lessen generate, as out of 100 quintals of paddy only forty five quintals of polished rice gets manufactured, although other versions generate about fifty five quintals. Hence some farmers are significantly less inclined to plant this variety. These days, Wada farmers get ₹40 for each kg. But if GI tag is gained the fee could maximize to ₹80-ninety and the place underneath Wada Kolam could effortlessly increase to five,000 hectares, he reported.