PM's Award Recognises Efforts to Promote UP's 'Kalanamak' Rice & Bihar's Makhana

‘Kalanamak’ rice is an ODOP product of Siddharthnagar, an aspirational district located in Terai belt of Uttar Pradesh and makhana is ODOP from Bihar's Darbhanga district. Efforts to promote 'Kalanamak rice' by officials in Uttar Pradesh's Siddharthnagar district and makhana by officials in Bihar's Darbhanga district were recognized with Prime Minister's Awards for Excellence in Public Administration recently.

Aside from these, the Ladakh Agriculture Department's construction of an efficient greenhouse to grow crops and the promotion of digital payments by the municipal corporations of Varanasi (U.P.) and Anantnag (Jammu and Kashmir) received the PM's honour.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented these awards to the officers at a ceremony held at Vigyan Bhawan on the occasion of the 15th Civil Services Day.

Kalanamak rice, also known as 'Lord Buddha's gift,' has been awarded under the 'one district, one product' (ODOP) scheme, a mission-mode scheme for the district's holistic development.

The scheme uses the ODOP approach to reap the benefits of scale in terms of input procurement, common services, and product marketing.

The ODOP scheme aims to provide a framework for value chain development and alignment of support infrastructure toward district economic development.

Kalanamak rice is an ODOP product of Siddharthnagar, an aspirational district in Uttar Pradesh's Terai belt. It is known for its distinct aroma and nutritional qualities and is included in the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) list of world specialty rice.

According to the citation, the award was given because the farming area has rapidly increased from 2,700 hectares in 2018 to 6,000 hectares in 2020 to 12,000 hectares in 2021, and farmers' income has increased manifold as wholesale selling price has increased from Rs 40/kg in 2018 to Rs 90/kg in 2020 and Rs 135/kg in 2021.

Foxnut, also known as makhana, is an ODOP from Bihar's Darbhanga district. Darbhanga generates 4,000 tonnes of makhana per year from 875 ponds. According to the award citation, nearly 1.25 lakh families are involved in the cultivation, harvesting, and processing of makhana.