In October 2025, I met Natabar Sarangi, a retired schoolteacher in Niali village in Cuttak district of Odisha. He was over 90 years of age and extremely frail but had big plans about how to promote indigenous varieties of rice. A new building for his museum, Narisho Agricultural Museum and Heritage Centre, was on the anvil where he planned to display the hundreds of rice varieties that he had collected from across the state.
This work comes at a standstill as Sarangi passed away on January 21, 2026, after brief hospitalisation.
Sarangi got involved in promoting landraces in 1992 after he retired and decided to get involved in agriculture as he did not want to sit idle. He began growing hybrid varieties of rice on the 2 hectares of family land. He got stem borer infestation in his field and was told to spray carbofuran chemical to take care of disease. But then he saw first-hand that pesticides are harmful for health. His employee, who was spraying the fields, lost consciousness during the process. Sarangi disposed of the toxic chemical by burying it in the ground. But the next day, small animals — crabs, snails, fish, earthworms — lay dead and floated in the water. If big creatures are dying then what about the micro-organisms, he asked and decided to shift to organic farming.
Since then, collecting landraces and promoting organic farming became the purpose of his life. He collected around 700 rice varieties over the last 30 years. He ensured that these were cultivated each year so viable seeds are available to the farmer. The farmers, who are connected with his work, regularly cultivate around 300 varieties for sustenance and livelihood. Many of these varieties are climate-resilient and help farmers continue even in uncertain weather. As chemicals are not needed, the cost of cultivation also goes down.
Odisha Government’s Amrut Anna Yojna launched in 2025 is Sarangi’s brainchild. This is an effort to promote traditional varieties of food crops. For example, under this scheme, only traditional varieties of rice like kalajeera and gobind bhog which are grown organically would be offered to the deity of the Jagannath Temple in Puri. Sarangi hoped that this would ensure not only that purest food is made available to the deity but also provide more income to farmers and in turn, increase the impetus towards organic farming.
The plan is to first ensure that the rice used to prepare the kotho bhogo or food offered to the deities is organically cultivated and then ensure that the maha prasad prepared for sale to devotees in the Anand Bazar of the temple is also prepared from traditional varieties. If this plan works, indigenous varieties will get a new lease of life as other temples are also likely to follow course.
Sarangi is recognised for his work and has received awards such as the Manmohan Choudaury Memorial award and the Rabiray Green Centenary Award. His well-wishers were nominating him for the Padma Sri award too. At this moment, it is uncertain who would carry forward Sarangi’s legacy.