In Madurai, NGO Organises Seminar To Teach Women To Cook Traditional Rice Varieties
The seminar was conducted to lessen the problems of marketing in the future for farmers cultivating traditional rice varieties.
A one-day training seminar was organised by a non-governmental organisation CREATE in association with the Women’s Consumer Protection Association and an NGO Madurai Sweet. The venue of the seminar was the Gandhi Museum located in Madurai. According to Local18 Tamil, CREATE works towards restoring the traditional rice varieties that ensure a combination of nutrition and flavour to the people.
The women who participated in this seminar were trained to cook the traditional varieties of rice. Besides raising the awareness level regarding the traditional rice types, there was another motive behind this seminar. This programme was conducted to lessen the problems of marketing in the future for farmers cultivating traditional rice varieties. Another objective of this program was to support traditional rice farmers and increase their production. Consumers are aware of the conventional varieties of rice but they face a considerable amount of problems regarding their production.
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The guests at this event were two professors named Karthikeyan from Thiagarajar College and Shanthi from Fatima College. They tasted the dishes cooked by the participants and appreciated them as well.
There are many traditional rice varieties like Jeera Samba rice, Aromatic Brown Rice, Black Rice, Forest Elephant Red Rice, and Mapillai Samba Red Rice. Other names for the Aromatic Brown Rice and Forest Elephant Red Rice are the Ilupaipoo Samba Rice and Kaatuyanum Red Rice. Traditional rice varieties are extremely important from a health point of view. A biochemical profiling study pointed out in 2020 that the traditional rice varieties are nutritionally superior compared to the two high-yielding rice varieties. The traditional varieties have more nutrients like crude protein, insoluble dietary fibre, and lipid content than the other types.
The study showed that conventional rice varieties like Thavalakannan and Rakthasali had significantly higher crude protein content. They also comprise higher crude lipids and insoluble dietary fibre content, making them traditionally superior to the tested ones. The study profiled 13 traditional rice varieties namely Chenkazhama, Cheruvellari, Chettadi, Chitteni, Kuttadan, Thekkan, etc. Nine of the 13 traditional rice varieties had higher TDF content (total dietary fibre) in comparison to the two high-yielding varieties of rice.
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