Saving rice

Something is stirring in paddy fields across India. New seeds, new crop management techniques and newly minted food security policies are about to hit the countryside. Not all of the changes that are being forged in Krishi Bhawan, headquarters of the Union agriculture ministry, in the top-flight research institutions across the country, and in the boardrooms of leading global and domestic seed companies are visible as yet. But these policies could transform the country’s rice landscape, perhaps, in an unalterable manner.