Sathyanarayana Beleri

Sathyanarayana Beleri is a farmer from Nettanige, a hamlet in Kasaragod district on Kerala’s border with Karnataka, who conserves traditional varieties of rice. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2024 in the field of agriculture, from Kerala ^[1].

From hobby to mission

He was born on 15 June 1973 ^[2]. More than a decade ago he met Cherkady Ramachandra Rao, a Gandhian organic farmer from Udupi, which led him to start saving seeds, beginning with Rajakayama, a rice that needs little water ^[2]. What started as a hobby became a passion, and he travelled across Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu collecting the seeds of old rice varieties ^[2].

Rice in polybags

His land is hilly, with red laterite soil that is unsuited to growing rice ^[2]. So he grows each variety in polybags, harvests and sun-dries it, and stores the seed in paper bags ^[2]. In this way he keeps more than 650 traditional varieties, mostly from Karnataka and Kerala, in about 200 square metres ^[2]. Among them are varieties such as Navara and Rakthasali ^[2].

He also conserves old varieties of arecanut, nutmeg, black pepper and jackfruit, keeps bees and grafts plants ^[2]. He shares his seeds free of charge with research institutes, agricultural universities and farmers in south India ^[2].