While India was home to more than 100,000 rice varieties only 50 years ago, today more than 80% of the area dedicated to grow rice is planted with hybrid varities.

Thanks to the efforts of about 1,400 farmers in the Koraput region (Odisha state), traditional varieties of "desi dhaan", as they are referred, are being sourced and preserved. Farmers point to economic, cultural and culinary reasons to move away from the hybrid varities, or "sarkari dhaan".