A group of Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka are cultivating an ancient variety of rice, which they say is more nutritious than modern varieties and grows in drought-prone areas. Researchers continue to look at the unique grain and hope it will revolutionise agriculture.

By Nirasha Piyawadani 

globalpressjournal.com: The serene setting of the Waharaka Ariya Chinthashramaya, a Buddhist temple, seems an unlikely setting for an agricultural revolution, but that is exactly what the priests here are trying to bring about.

Here, the priests are cultivating a rice plant that produces a grain of rice locally known as Swayanjatha El Haal. According to Buddhist texts, this variety is the first recorded rice variety.

The Thripitaka, a collection of teachings of Buddha, contains a section which refers to the origins of the Swayanjatha grain, says Aththidiye Sukhithadheera Thero, a monk at the Waharaka Temple who is involved in the cultivation of the plant. The temple is located in Gonagaldeniya, about 50 kilometres (31 miles) from Colombo, the country’s commercial capital.

Buddhist teachings say the first grain of this type of rice self-generated in the soil, and it is named Swayanjatha, as it was born of itself and not from another plant, Sukhithadheera Thero says.

“However, as man’s greed grew, the grain lost a lot of its taste and nutrition, and grew a chaff around the grain, and became the seed that is seen today,” he says.

In 2008, the head monk of this temple said he had a vision that this rice would be revived in Sri Lanka.

And in 2012, the monks believe, that vision came to pass.

That was the year a temple devotee learned, via a newspaper article, of a rice plant being researched at the Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka. According to the report, that rice had a high nutritional value and other unique characteristics.

The monks and devotees of Waharaka Temple are convinced that this re-discovered rice plant is the fabled Swayanjatha rice, and will help improve the nutrition of Sri Lanka’s population and bless the people wherever it is grown.

They’re not alone in noting the plant’s unique traits. At least three Sri Lankan universities are studying the plant to understand how it can be cultivated more widely, especially in drought-prone areas. But the state agriculture sector remains dubious about this plant, which some experts say isn’t confirmed to be a type of rice at all.

Sri Lanka produces around 2.7 million metric tons of rough rice annually, according to government data. Around 34% of the country’s cultivated land area is devoted to the farming of rice, in two seasons each year.

More nutritious than other rice varieties

According to the Ministry of Agriculture, they have approved and released into the Sri Lankan market around 68 varieties of rice up to 2009, of which only around 16 varieties are traditional rice varieties.

An analysis of the rice initiated by the University of Sri Jayewardenepura’s Department of Food Science and Technology has found that Swayanjatha rice is more nutritious than other rice varieties currently in use.

The origins of the new strain of rice are unclear, says Priyantha Yapa, a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Agriculture Sciences of Sabaragamuwa University who is believed to be the first researcher to have cultivated and studied this plant.

While doing research in 2012, a woman in Sri Lanka’s North Central Province gave Yapa 24 grains of a seed that she claimed was drought-tolerant and easy to grow. She said her family found these seeds some years ago in a hidden treasure of ancient kings, a claim that Yapa says he could not confirm.

Yapa cultivated the seeds, entrusting some to his students living in drought-prone areas, and says the plants produced a large harvest. It was his article, published in a newspaper, that got noticed by a prelate of the Waharaka Temple. A team from the temple, led by the chief priest, visited Yapa. It was during that meeting, Yapa says, that he first learned about Swayanjatha rice, which does not have an agreed upon scientific name yet.

“The Thero said that this rice variety has lucky energy of saving people from death by hunger in any severe drought,” he says, referring to the monk. “The facts verified in my research matched with the facts the Thero outlined from the Thripitaka.”

Yapa noted other characteristics which corresponded with the Buddhist texts describing the original Swayanjatha plant.

“The major specialty of this plant is that it does not become extinct,” Yapa says. “So, I think it was hidden in the jungle for a long time without grabbing anybody’s attention.”

Unlike other rice varieties in Sri Lanka, the Swayanjatha rice plant can be grown throughout the year and without flooding the paddy fields, Yapa says. It grows with minimal care – no need for chemical fertiliser or pesticides – and usually grows into a tall plant with long stalks of rice after about six months. Some of Yapa’s plants grew as tall as six feet, he says.

Plus, Yapa says, it self-propagates, with small shoots emerging as soon as it has yielded a harvest.

Yapa gave some of the rice grains to the Waharaka Temple, and monks there planted them.

“We do not have any commercial purpose,” Sukhithadheera Thero says. “We grow it with the aim of distributing it among people for their benefit. We have now provided many households and institutes with this rice variety.”

Besides giving the rice directly to people who want to grow it themselves, the temple also gave it to the Lanka Sekai Kyusei Foundation, a non-profit religious group. The group grows rice in a two-acre plot in Katana, about 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Colombo.

No harmful chemicals

“We distribute the harvest among the people as much as we can, free of charge,” says Nimal Kumara, distribution officer at the foundation. “Our aim is popularising this crop which does not contain harmful chemicals.”

But government officials are not convinced about the value of this rice plant, and some even question whether it is even rice at all.

G. Ajith Pushpa Kumara, deputy director of Natural Resource Management at the Ministry of Agriculture, says that this plant doesn’t interest them because it is not rice but another form of sorghum.

But Yapa disagrees, pointing out that Sri Lanka has a long history of considering many other types of seeds and grains as rice.

Many of the rice varieties today belong to the Oryza species and were introduced during the Green Revolution, Yapa says.

“But before the Green Revolution, our people named many other seeds which could be eaten as rice,” he says. One example is the seeds of one type of water lily plant which are even today known as rice, he points out.

The monks at the Waharaka Temple aren’t swayed by the debate over the grain. They believe this rice plant is the Swayanjatha rice and they are determined to prove the value of the rice and make it popular among farmers, Sukhithadheera Thero says.

And while they quietly go about their work, at least one researcher is preparing for a possible shift – a monumental one – in how Sri Lankans and others eat.

Rumesh Liyanage, a research assistant and PhD candidate at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura who was instrumental in bringing the rice to the attention of his supervising lecturers at the university, says more research is needed to better understand this plant. He says he’s optimistic about what he and others will find.

“We have a great hope that this rice can replace wheat, and that is something we want to research more,” he says in a phone interview. “If research can show Swayanjatha rice as a replacement for wheat, that will be a revolution in the food industry.” 

Source: http://globalpressjournal.com/asia/sri_lanka/buddhist-monks-cultivate-fabled-rice-that-they-hope-will-help-in-drought-prone-areas/. Ajith Perakum Jayasinghe translated this article from Sinhala. 

Sri Lanka: “I found a diamond of a story hidden inside a rough pebble”

My story is like the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. But my story is not about a bean, it is about a legendary grain of rice and its strong religious background.

In reporting this story, I realised it is a science story as well as a history lesson. Even more than that, some sources say the rice had been found in an ancient buried treasure, and others said it was a magical grain.

This story is a result of my journey to look for the truth in all of these accounts.

It all started when a student visited my friend and told her about a magic grain of rice. I joined the conversation and listened eagerly.

“We don’t need a field to grow this paddy variety, it can be grown even in the home garden,” Charith, the student, said as he placed a few grains in my palm.

I was fascinated by those grains. I knew at once that I held my next GPI story in my hand!

But first I had to pitch a strong story. I couldn’t tell Manori Wijesekera, GPJ’s Asia regional editor, a mere fairy tale. It is not easy with Manori: My dear editor is a most demanding editor! She is not satisfied unless a story idea is really powerful.

When I pitch a story, she first asks, “Nirasha, is there SIN?” The acronym refers to a news angle that is significant, interesting and newsworthy. That question is always difficult to answer.

When I submit the details, she says, “No, that’s not enough. Research more. Prove your angle.” Oh no!

Due to this pressure, I found a diamond of a story hidden inside a rough pebble. So I kept digging and went on a journey, like in Gulliver’s Travels.

I first contacted a government-run rice research facility. Someone there told me, “You’re going to write about a grain that is given to animals. Give it up before you are ridiculed by your readers!”

He went on to say that this isn’t even rice, but a variety of sorghum fed to cattle.

I was dejected, but I did not give up.

I then found a researcher who was focused on the rice. He explained the research he had done and what he had found. He could prove what he said with data, and even gave me a few grains of rice to take back with me. I began to see a glimmer of my story.

My interview with the researcher was in a city about 4 hours’ travel from my home. It was too late to return home, so I stayed at a friend’s house nearby. Her 80-year-old grandmother was curious about my work. When I showed her the rice, she instantly recognised it.

“Ah, this is Swayanjatha,” she said. “When I saw it from afar, I thought it was sorghum. This is not sorghum. It is bigger than this.”

Her family grew this rice many years ago, she said.

I was stunned. This old woman seemed to know more than the researchers at the government research institute!

I also realised the value of talking to not only researchers, but those who grow the rice, and who have lived with it and who understand it.

So I went on to talk to many farmers, who directed me to a farmer named Premadasa Gurusinghe, who came from a long line of traditional rice farmers. He answered all my questions about the Swayanjatha rice, giving me clear details as well as the historical background based on local knowledge he had gathered. He was the perfect grassroots verifier of all that the researchers had told me!

I visited the temple that was promoting the rice. I visited ordinary people who grew this rice in their gardens. I visited many researchers. And I met with government officials.

The cold war between the state, which does not recognise this grain as a rice variety, and the researchers, who are convinced this grain can feed the hungry, was something I gradually began to realise. I was suspicious of everything I was told, and asked for proof and evidence at every turn.

In the same way I was suspicious of others, some were suspicious of me, too! The researchers did not share their lab results proving the rice’s nutritional value until they met me in person, visited the GPJ Sri Lanka office, met my editor and were convinced that we were genuine in our purpose of producing a balanced article.

My journey for this story took me through many hills and valleys and fields and offices.

At the end of it all, I realised that a journalist undergoes this pressure and works hard for the sake of people who will read and be challenged and inspired. Journalism is not a mere job. It is a service rendered from our heart to the people.

(https://globalpressjournal.com/inside-the-story/sri-lanka-i-found-a-diamond-of-a-story-hidden-inside-a-rough-pebble/)