Characterisation of Katarni rice for its Geographical Indication of Bihar India: Geographical Indication of Katarni Rice

MANKESH KUMAR; SATYENDRA .; S P SINGH; ANAND KUMAR; SMRITI .; SHASHI KANT; P K SINGH; R K SOHANE

Authors

MANKESH KUMAR Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Bihar Agricultural College, BAU, Sabour, Bhagalpur- 813 210, Bihar
SATYENDRA . Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Bihar Agricultural College, BAU, Sabour, Bhagalpur- 813 210, Bihar
S P SINGH Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Bihar Agricultural College, BAU, Sabour, Bhagalpur- 813 210, Bihar
ANAND KUMAR Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Bihar Agricultural College, BAU, Sabour, Bhagalpur- 813 210, Bihar
SMRITI . Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Bihar Agricultural College, BAU, Sabour, Bhagalpur- 813 210, Bihar
SHASHI KANT Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Bihar Agricultural College, BAU, Sabour, Bhagalpur- 813 210, Bihar
P K SINGH Director Seed and Farms, BAU, Sabour, Bhagalpur- 813 210, Bihar
R K SOHANE Director Extension Education, BAU, Sabour, Bhagalpur- 813 210, Bihar

Abstract

“Katarni Rice” is the most prevalent, ceremonial and finest quality scented rice of Bihar. It is famous for its aromatic flavour, palatability and chura (beaten rice) making qualitiesofGeographical area of production of Katarni Rice includes districts of Munger, Banka and South Bhagalpur of Zone IIIA of Bihar. The unique features of Katarni rice is developed only when it is grown in its territory areas. It has an immense scope of trading in local as well as export market. But, the available Katarni rice is poor yielder (25-30 t/ha) and farmers are tending towards the cultivation of non-aromatic high yielding rice varieties. Hence, in order to save this landrace from extinction and promote and protect the interest of Katarni growers, attempts were made to get its geographical indication (GI). With objective of providing exclusive right to the farmers for growing this premium quality rice and getting remunerative price through its marketing, an application for getting the tag of geographical indication was submitted by a Katarni growers’ association. Bihar Agricultural University, Sabour as a technical facilitator for this application, served to characterize and document this rice landrace on the basis of morphological, biochemical and genetical traits. The present study deals with purification, documentation and characterization of Katarni rice which helped in getting the GI tag in 2018 from the office of Intellectual Properties Rights, New Delhi, India.