L i n k s :
Click here to subscribe to our free monthly electronic newsletter on organic farming
|
Dr. Richharia's story - Crushed, but not defeated The late Dr. R H Richharia was one of the leading experts on rice in India. He documented and collected an amazing 19,000 rice varieties during his career. As per his estimation, India was home to 200,000 varieties of rice. Dr. Richharia's career was however cut short and he was treated very unfairly by the government in India because he stood up to the International Rice Research Institute's machinations in the country. While we do not agree with the hybridisation programme or in the use of chemicals that was part of Dr. Richharia's work, there are two aspects in his story which are noteworthy - the first was his work with indigenous rice varieties, and the second was the role "foreign powers" and large corporations play in agribusiness and the business of feeding the world. Dr. Richharia came in their way, the rest is history. We are reproducing in full an interview of Dr. Richharia that appeared in ‘The Illustrated Weekly of India’ in 1986, titled 'Crushed but not defeated'. We repeat that we do not support the hybridisation programme or the use of chemicals in agriculture - this interview is reproduced to relate the role played by the Government and the International Rice Research Institute, Philippines, essentially controlled by USA to support their commercial interests in agriculture and food systems. It is also relevant to point out here that Dr. Richharia's collection of 19,000 rice varieties is today in the hands of the Indira Gandhi Agricultural University (IGAU), Raipur, Chhatisgarh, which has since then added (only) another 5,000 varieties. The official number of samples existing with IGAU is therefore 24,000. In 2002, IGAU signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the multinational agribusiness corporation, Syngenta, for a collaborative "research" agreement that would have entailed the transfer of this rice germplasm collections from the university to the corporation's laboratories. Syngenta was to have marketed new rice varieties developed by it using this genestock and paid royalties to the university. A local newspaper "leaked" the story and the resultant outcry in the local media forced the University to cancel the agreement. Look for the links to related pages on this website at the end. Crushed, but not defeated Few scientists in India have been treated as shabbily as Dr R H Richharia, one of the leading rice experts in the country. Director of the Central Rice Research Institute at Cuttack, a post from which he was ignominiously transferred, he developed, for the first time in India, certain rice varieties which gave the highest yield and were free from the usual pests. Unfortunately, his breakthrough irked the foreign-funded International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. Which, with its influence with the Government of India, tried to stifle his research efforts. A sordid saga of injustice to Dr Richharia followed. On these pages, Claude Alvares talks to the eminent agricultural scientist who became a victim of an international conspiracy, about the achievements in his research and the various obstacles he had to overcome to continue it. Could you begin by giving us some idea of your involvement in rice in the late fifties? It has been my hobby throughout life to collect rice material from whatever source possible and maintain and study it for genetic variability. Rice being my special subject, whoever came and met me, I requested him to give me some samples of rice. In this way I collected enough rice variability while in Bihar upto 1959 and when I came to Cuttack (Orissa) in the same year, I continued the same policy. Here I started work with 67 rice types from Taiwan and discovered that there were two or three lines which were showing dwarf plants. We were interested in these dwarf varieties because if the rice crop does not lodge and at the same time can stand heavy manuring, that would be an ideal condition to get more production. So, we found in those 67 varieties, two or three cultures of dwarf types and one of them was identified as Taichung Native 1 (TN 1). I was the first person, with my assistants, to locate that and I felt we should multiply that material and make suitable selections. One of the selections made proved to be resistant to diseases and pests and was high yielding. How is it that the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) was able to steal a lead on the Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI)? After all, you were the real experts in rice, and Robert Chandler, director of IRRI, had not even seen a rice plant when he was appointed to that post? Dr Chandler was known to the institute at Cuttack. The IRRI had started by 1962 and he then visited CRRI, and naturally as an innocent scientist, I showed him around. At one place we stopped and I pointed out some plants and said: "This variety will give you the highest production—a record yield in the world, of over 9000 lbs/acre and it is completely free from the usual pests: Taichung Native 1, (TN 1). That mistake I made—I should have told him my selection number and not its origin. He said, you will be a mystic man if you can achieve that. I said, we have already done it and we will confirm it. He just made a note of it. Dr Chandler returned to Delhi and informed the authorities concerned at the Government of India and the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) that TN 1 and IR 8 have given the highest yield and therefore rice production can be revolutionised in India, if these two varieties are grown. During that period I was chairing the rice committee at Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi—and Dr B P Pal sent a message that he wanted to meet me during the lunch hour. Dr Cummings (Rockefeller Foundation) was also attending that meeting although he was not a member. I was asked by Dr Pal to allow him (Dr Cummings) to attend that special meeting. I went to meet Dr Pal and he said that, TN 1 had been given to them by Dr Chandler of the IRRI and they had to accept it and introduce it; I said, Dr Pal, you are committing a great mistake, it is all full of diseases and pests, susceptible to disease and pests and some viruses also. The selection I made is different, whereas if you grow the general one (bulk seeds), it is all full of viruses, a plot of which can be seen even today. He said, ‘but how can you stop it—they are sending it by air in tonnes as a gift’. I said, ‘I am not a party to that and I would not recommended its import from there.’ How often did Chandler attempt to interfere with your work? On another occasion he brought samples of 311 varieties to CRRI, all susceptible to diseases and pests, and handed them over to one of my staff members without my knowledge. This was when we were holding a seminar on rice at the CRRI. A number of scientists from Philippines came for the seminar and were my guests. After handing over the rice material (311 varieties), he instructed my staff member to divide them into two, one lot to be maintained at CRRI and the other lot to go to the Coordinated Rice Research Centre at Hyderabad. Chandler was leaving that day and I was to drop him at the aerodrome. As I was getting into the car, a staff member came to me saying that he had been given a parcel with the material and he had divided the material into two, as desired by Dr Chandler, and he had brought one half because Dr Freeman (who was in charge of the Hyderabad station) was also gong by the same plane, so he could carry it. This is how I learnt of the virus-susceptible rice material received without my knowledge from the IRRI. I rebuked my staff member: how had he accepted, divided, allocated material on the instructions of an outsider? Anyway I then asked him whether he had got the quarantine certificate for the material, because we cannot import any plant material without a quarantine certificate. He said, no, sir. I then asked Dr Chandler directly, "I understand you have passed on a number of rice cultures to a staff member of my institute, half of which are to be given to Dr Freeman for Hyderabad. The material has been brought. But first I want the quarantine certificate from you." He replied, "You mean to say I am gong to introduce virus into your country?" I said, "I have never raised the question of virus. It is you who are saying so. I am only asking for the quarantine certificate, because according to the rules, no foreign seeds and plant material can be allowed into the country without the quarantine certificate." He did not have the certificate and left. So, my staff were already being bribed or won over and through some of them, (one or two) the IRRI was getting all the information from the CRRI. This is how they stole my institute's work, just to get a lead in the rice world. I learnt later that Chandler went straight to the minister for agriculture, at New Delhi and told him that if I continue as director of the institute, they would not co-operate. The minister, C Subramaniam, ordered that Dr Richharia should be asked to retire. But Sivaraman, the then cabinet secretary—he was earlier the agriculture secretary—who was a great friend of mine, advised the minister not to do this. "After all, Dr Richharia has done so much work and built up the entire institute (CRRI) in its present form. We can't ask him to retire. The best way is to transfer him as director of the Rice Development Council which we are just commencing". Sivaraman advised me to go and meet Subramaniam. I phoned his PA and was told to come to his residence between 6.30—7.00 am the next day. I went there early next morning. Everything was silent. Only one man was dusting and cleaning the place. I told him I had an appointment with the minister. He went and told the minister. I was called in Subramaniam said, "First you say that Taichung is a good variety. Now you are opposing it." I said "I was telling you about the selection that we have made. If you introduce the bulk material directly imported, it will create havoc in the country and all our existing varieties will also be affected by virus and other diseases and pests. The material which I have selected is different." He said: "I don't know all this. Now that the Rockefellers have sent the material, you have to accept it. I said, "I refuse. I don't want to be blamed later on, if someone wants to know who was the director who recommended its introduction." What is the problem when you import seeds in bulk? They cannot be free from diseases and pests. You can import in quantities, but they must be treated with certain chemicals, and fungicides, so that if there are any eggs of insects or any mycelia and spores of any disease, they are all killed. They say they did it. But even if they did it, it is very susceptible to new diseases and pests, alternate hosts of which may exist in our surrounding wild flora here. So then the rice crop will get affected, spreading diseases in our innocent indigenous varieties. That is the concept. Introduction of Tungro virus and the like are more dangerous. What is the susceptibility due to? Due to the special characteristics of the variety which is related to its gene. So it is possible to bring in a certain variety which is known to be susceptible to a certain virus? And this is what they have done in the case of IR-8 and TN-1. They knew about it because they were also experts. And what was the difference between the Taichung variety that you had and the one that came later? What I had was a selection resistant to viruses, diseases and pests. Bulk seed is heterogeneous. Out of that bulk, however, we can select individual plants to fit our purpose. This is how, out of thousands of Taichung plants, I had selected a few, and then multiplied them. If you use the bulk, their progeny will be mixed—good and bad. That means it entered the country with the Green Revolution? It has come simultaneously under the garb of the Green Revolution and I was the first to discover and realise that the mass/bulk import and introduction of seed would interfere with our productivity and once introduced, these viruses (Tungro virus, transitory virus, etc), would be difficult to eradicate. Now the dwarf genes of exotic origin in rice have become a permanent feature in India. It is instructive to note how a country like the US with very little involvement in rice, could end up controlling rice research, and the destiny of millions. This is how they won. If the CRRI came up, then they (the IRRI) were nowhere and the purpose of pouring in millions of dollars into the IRRI would be defeated. They were in search of a place where they could control the rice research in respect of introducing varieties or whatever they wished to do. So first they approached the Government of India to hand over the Central Rice Research Institute to the Rockefeller Foundation Trust to establish an International Rice Research Institute. I had then just joined the CRRI. When the subject was discussed with me, I did not favour this transfer and I argued that to establish an international organisation on the soil of India would be unhealthy because we would not have any control. I felt that the Central Rice Research Institute should function an independent institution and should not be handed over to the Rockefellers, who, after all, were a private concern. In those days, the Government of India was also of the same opinion. After this, they announced the establishment of an International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, somewhere in 1960. Good work was being carried out by the Central Rice Research Institute in this country, making germplasm collections from indigenous rice varieties which could give you 30-40 per cent higher yield. We were also evolving varieties which would be responsive to high fertilisation, and working to develop non-lodging types and work connected with green manure crops and plant nutrition, utilising radio isotopes etc but all these activities met with an abrupt end; all of a sudden these programmes were all modified and workers' activities were directed towards evolving HYVs, responsive to high fertilisers with the dwarfing gene from the dwarf rice variety TN1 and IR8, crossed with all our renewed rice variety available in the rice region of India, to be converted into high yielding dwarfs, which means that unless you use the blood from IR 8 or Taichung Native 1, you cannot get HYVs, forgetting at the same time that such genes are also available in the indigenous rice varieties. The ICAR yielded to this pressure which I had opposed. The man behind this strategy was Dr Robert E Chandler. They went to the extent of saying that in the existing rice germplasm of India, dwarf genes do not exist, which is not a fact. If you spoke in favour of this strategy, they promoted you and if you opposed it, they (ICAR) demoted you, broke you, as they succeeded in breaking me. Continued, click here for the concluding part Pages on this website relevant to seeds, genetic materials and related issues : Indian farmers rediscover advantages of traditional rice varieties Genetically modified seeds and other organisms Global centres of biodiversity You may also like to read on this website : Myths and fallacies about organic farming Techniques and practices in organic farming On the effects of chemical farming : 18 ways how "modern" farming affects our world Pesticides in your food (and water) For general information on organic farming, click here For information on other issues related to organic farming, click here To order satavic.org on CD, click here Click here for the concluding part of this interview Copyright © 1999-2008 by Satavic Farms. All rights reserved. Disclaimer |
