The Uttar Pradesh government will be organising a three-day “Kalanamak Rice Festival” in the Siddharth Nagar district, Uttar Pradesh. The festival will start from March 13, 2021. This festival is being organised after grand success of “Strawberry Festival in Jhansi” and “Jaggery Festival in Lucknow”.
Highlights
The Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, has emphasized to promote the localised production and provide them a market in a bid to create new income opportunities for the farmers. The festival was inaugurated virtually on March 13.
About the Festival
The rice festival event is being organised so as to promote, market and brand the selected products as One District One Product (ODOP) under the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ and ‘Local for Vocal’ campaign. The Kala Namak Rice is grown in this region and is One District One Product of some of the Eastern UP districts. Thus, those who attended the festival would be able to taste dishes made with Kala Namak rice. They can purchase Kala Namak paddy seeds and rice from these stalls. During the festival, the visitors will get to know the historical, nutritional and scientific merits & information regarding the cultivation of Kala Namak Rice. The festival displayed several dishes prepared by the Kalanamak rice at various stalls. The dishes include pulao, kheer, lentils, cumin rice, poha, vegetable, rice-chickpeas, khichdi, idli, fara.
Cultural programs
The festival will also mark the colourful cultural programs in which the local artists and students showcase their talent. The programme will also be providing the progressive farmers, FPOs and self-help groups with information with respect to the cultivation and processing of the product.
About Kalanamak rice
The rice is a geographical indication (GI) tagged rice from Siddharth Nagar district in Uttar Pradesh. It is grown in Siddharthanagar, Deoria, Gorakhpur, Maharajganj, Kushinagar, Basti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Gonda, Bahraich, Balrampur, and Shravasti as ODOP.