Dadaji Khobragade

On December 28, 2011, my husband Stan Cox, a plant breeder, our friend Jaideep Hardikar who is a special correspondent with the Telegraph, and I went to Nanded village in Maharashtra, India, to meet Dadaji Khobragade, a Dalit farmer and rice breeder. Dadaji has bred about eleven varieties of rice, including HMT Sona which occupies nearly 70% of the central Indian paddy belt. Earlier in his breeding career, Dadaji had to sell his land to pay for his son Mitrajeet's medical treatment. He remained landless up until December 2010 when the state government voted to turn over to him the land on which he had been breeding his rice varieties. And the following year he was awarded an additional 3.5 acres to expand his breeding work. "In 1998, Khobragade developed DRK....It was an instant hit in the market. But soon the farmer noticed a disturbing trend in the market yards. The DRK variety is grown widely but its sales are being registered in the name of 'Jai Sriram'.... Jai Sriram was popular in the market before DRK arrived....Prakash Meshram, a trader [says] 'He is poor, uneducated and has no power....If Dadaji had not been a Dalit, the rice would have sold in his name.'” -- "Bitter Harvest," Lyla Bavadam, Frontline, Jan 2011.