Growing a rice seed bank in India

A rice conservationist works to reintroduce genetically diverse, drought-tolerant varieties.

FIFTY years ago, every Indian village would probably have grown a dozen or more rice varieties that grew nowhere else. Passed down from generation to generation and family to family, there would have been a local variety for every soil and taste – rice that would grow well in droughts or deep floods, which had the aroma of mangoes or peanuts, tolerance for saltwater or medicinal value.