Gems that grow in Kerala’s own backyard

The 1980s marked a tectonic shift in India in multiple ways. Rajiv Gandhi’s rise as Prime Minister following his mother, Indira Gandhi’s assassination symbolised a generational transition. It also triggered shifts in many other realms, including in India's collective values.

The hegemony of state capitalism, masked as Nehruvian Socialism, gradually gave way to market-friendly policies. Rajiv, the “computer kid”, started revolutionising the telecom and IT sectors. India began changing beyond recognition, which accelerated exponentially during the 1990s. 

Watching these momentous changes in his village was Potteth Narayanan Unny, a youngster from a traditional farming family in Chittur, Palakkad district, known as Kerala’s rice bowl.  Unlike most Malayali youths, Unny never wanted to work under anyone and aspired to be an entrepreneur.

Like most bright youngsters of the time, he was seduced by the emerging wonder world of computers. So, after graduation, Unny embarked on a path that satisfied both his passions and set up a computer business.  He took a franchise to sell desktop computers made by HCL, which built India’s first indigenous computer.

His business was going well, but a tragedy struck unexpectedly. Unny’s father, Ramachandra Menon, passed away in 1994. Besides suffering the vast personal loss, Unny was hit by a big question. Who will now look after the 100-year-old family farm that his father ran for decades?

A New Field

Left with no alternative, Unny finally had to take the leap himself. He gave up his computer business and took over the farm on the banks of the Shokanasini, the river named the destroyer of sorrows.

Unny’s challenges were quite daunting. It was when Kerala’s paddy farmers were increasingly abandoning cultivation, burdened by falling productivity, rise in costs and dwindling returns. Triggered by acute land scarcity on the one side and growing demand fuelled by foreign remittances on the other, paddy lands were extensively converted into real estate, posing severe environmental and food security challenges.

However, the determined entrepreneur in Unny was not to surrender meekly, and he explored out-of-the-box ways for value-addition and diversification.

Looking at how to tap the growing interest in organic farming, Unny came across Navara, Kerala’s celebrated indigenous medicinal rice mentioned in several ancient texts. With more than 2000 years of history, it was famed for its use in Ayurveda.

Navara was traditionally cultivated in Chittur and neighbouring regions but had declined over time due to falling demand. Unny decided to revive the ancient tradition and converted his conventional paddy farm to cultivate Navara exclusively and organically.

The challenges to Navara were even more daunting. Struggling on the brink of extinction, pure Navara seeds proved elusive despite Unny’s extensive search across Kerala, even at the rice research centres or the Agricultural university. He could not find any farmer who cultivated Navara for livelihood. So, Unny began collecting whatever limited quantity was available and sowed them in a purification farm, “unpolluted” by any other rice variety.

Back-breaking task

It took five years to produce a viable quantity of pure golden and black-glumed varieties. The soft-stranded Navara was more prone to wilting and pest attacks, so the usual natural pesticides were ineffective. This made Unny, with his few helpers, brush the plants manually twice daily to keep the pests out.

Each step consumed more cost and time. Many around Unny advised him to stop his madness and return to conventional paddy cultivation. Nevertheless, his family stood behind him.

But the worst was yet to come. After his first harvest, Unny found there were too few buyers for the exotic rice, which was unused for daily consumption. Large consumers like Ayurveda companies or hospitals were also not keen despite Navara’s indispensability in treatments and medicines or the boom in the wellness industry. Reason? Even top Ayurveda companies were happy with the cheaper and fake Navara available in the market, unlike Unny’s genuine and organic premium product. The first five years drove Unny to near bankruptcy with zero revenue.

Yet, he remained undeterred and resisted bouts of depression taking over. Unny started a relentless campaign about Navara’s traditional values, for which he found a celebrated supporter: Dr M S Swaminathan, the father of India’s Green Revolution. The eminent scientist frequently referred to Navara’s high medicinal and nutritional value in his lectures and also visited Unny’s farm a couple of times. Unny soon came to be invited to speak on Navara at seminars and conferences in and outside the country. Awards and honours also began to come his way.

Global Recognition

By then, Unny secured Organic certification for his product and began pitching for Geographical Indication (GI) immediately after the concept was introduced in the country. The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) defines GI as a sign used on products with a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation due to that origin.

They are also covered under Articles 22 to 24 of the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (Trips) Agreement, which was part of the Agreements concluding the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations. As a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), India enacted the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration & Protection) Act 1999, which came into force on 15th September 2003.

Unny mobilised more rice farmers of Chittur and formed a Navara rice farmers society on behalf of which the procedures for securing GI were initiated. He also sought the association of the Agriculture University and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Kerala.

The collective efforts proved successful as Navara became the country's first rice variety and the third edible agricultural produce to secure the GI tag in 2004. The GI tag and his entire eight-acre Navara farm’s acquisition of certification as fully organic helped Unny brand his produce and explore more marketing possibilities.

Demand gradually rose, and the branded UNF (Unny’s Navara Farm) rice price increased from 250 rupees to nearly 400 rupees per kg. Unny also received the Plant Genome Saviour Community Recognition from the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Authority under the Union Ministry of Agriculture.

Stumbling Block

However, exploration of Navara’s export market hit a wall when the Union government banned the export of all rice varieties except Basmati. It took persistent efforts by Unny and others to get an exemption to export limited quantities of organic rice varieties. But by then, the prospective importers had faded out. Other roadblocks for Navara export were the low production scale and the absence of a regular supply chain.

Today, UNF produces about six tons annually and fetches 800 rupees per kg. Though the market continues to remain entirely domestic, demand today outstrips supply. Under Unny’s leadership, Palakkad Matta, another native rice variety, also received GI. With Palakkad Maddalam, an Indigenous percussion instrument, also securing the GI tag, the local panchayat, Peruvamba, has earned the unique honour of having three of its products with this coveted recognition.

The twentieth anniversary of Navara securing the GI tag was celebrated in Palakkad recently when the heroes behind all three GI-tagged products of Peruvamba were honoured. Even as their achievements were duly lauded, discussions cited the various problems regarding branding, marketing, and the need for more support from authorities.

Experts wondered why, unlike other countries, we don’t have a “Kerala Grand Bazaar” showcasing and selling over the state’s 30 unique GI-tagged products.

Tsvetelina Bandakova, an international activist for the rights of Indigenous Communities,  summed up the celebration’s significance thus: “We celebrate not only the protection of these unique rice varieties but also the profound impacts this recognition (GI) has had on farmers, communities and the environment. These rice varieties cultivated in Kerala for centuries are deeply intertwined with the region’s culture and climate, providing a blueprint for how agriculture can evolve in the face of climate change.”

“Navara rice is much more than an agricultural product; it is a symbol of resilience, both culturally and environmentally”. 

At a time when the internet has made Japanese wasabi and Korean kimchi popular worldwide, we in Kerala have yet to leverage technology to tap into the global market for the gems in our own backyard.

An eye-opening tech event

The use of technology is pervasive these days, leaving hardly anything untouched. However, discussions about using technology, such as artificial intelligence, to help disabled people overcome difficulties rarely receive the attention they deserve. This made the Empower 2024 event at the National Institute for Speech and Hearing (NISH) in Trivandrum an eye-opening experience, where technology experts gathered to interact with end users. From using public toilets to boarding a bus, millions of Indians with sight impairments, deafness, and other disabilities face challenges. Technology plays a crucial role in helping them lead normal lives, and the assistive technology (AT) sector needs all the support it can get.

Around 25 startups from across India showcased their products, ranging from wheelchairs to AI-assisted educational tools. Some of the startup founders were themselves disabled, and their creativity and entrepreneurship were truly inspiring. A pitching session saw 16 startups receive grants of up to 500,000 rupees and mentoring deals. The event also marked the launch of an Assistive Technology Hub, set to become a centre of excellence for AT research, innovation, and policy interventions. Kerala often boasts of its inclusive policies, but none of the movers and shakers from the government or private IT sector were present at the conclave, and the local media largely ignored the event. It makes us wonder who is really blind here.

Another heady app is brewing

Someone should inform the Kerala government to stop developing more useless apps. From Kerala Savaari, which was supposed to rival Uber, to Margadarshi for bus users, officials periodically launch apps that, aside from providing photo opportunities for ministers, serve little purpose. The latest in line is the Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco), which plans an app to allow people to buy liquor online, with the Kerala Startup Mission seeking firms to develop it. However the task definition as reported by Open Digest, makes it almost pointless: “Customers purchasing through the app must visit the store at the allotted time to collect their products.” We’re curious to see how much Bevco plans to spend on this.

AI to battle fashion piracy

AI making it easier to create deepfakes is old news by now. However, using the same technology to detect counterfeit goods is only now gaining traction. French tech firm Cypheme has developed an AI-powered anti-counterfeit solution, and fashion brand Lacoste is using Vrai AI to identify fake products sold under its name. The system uses a photo of a product or a specific detail to examine microscopic visual cues, distinguishing between genuine items and copies. According to Yahoo Tech, the technology boasts 99.7 percent accuracy, eliminating the need for anti-counterfeit measures like special labels or hidden details. Hopefully, more applications like this will help the fashion industry, which has been battling piracy for decades.

A brush with technology

i-Da has given a TED Talk, appeared at the UN, and addressed the UK’s House of Lords. Now, a painting created by her is being auctioned by Sotheby’s with a minimum price of 120,000 USD, expected to fetch a record-breaking amount. Why is this in a tech newsletter? Because i-Da is a humanoid robot, created by gallerist Aidan Meller in collaboration with Oxford University researchers and the robotics company Engineered Arts. The auction of her abstract portrait of Alan Turing marks the first of its kind, reports Popular Science.