Hyderabad Farmer Innovates Farming Technique For Vitamin D-Enriched Wheat And Rice, Wins Patent

Padma Shri-winning Hyderabad farmer Chintala Venkat Reddy has formulated a method to naturally fortify rice and wheat with vitamin D. Studies have shown that about 70-90% Indians are low on this nutrient. When Reddy discovered this is a rampant problem, he wished to come up with a natural way to enrich the body with the vitamin rather than relying on medicines.

On February 11 2021, the 70-year-old farmer won a patent for vitamin D-enriched rice and wheat from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva.

 “I succeeded after working on it for two years. Then filed for a national patent in August 2019 and a year later, I applied for International patent on August 1, 2020. My concern was simple: why should we take medicines for something that is coming to us naturally, for free? I had already worked on rice with Vitamin A and C; my crops are fed with natural nutrients through drip irrigation. It is a simple technique and absolutely natural. I tweaked the process and the nutrients to enrich rice and wheat with Vit D,” Reddy explained.

Low levels of vitamin D can lead to issues such as low bone density, higher risk of fractures, and even rickets in children. With this new innovation, Reddy hopes to make this nutrient easily and naturally accessible through staple crops.

As a farmer, Reddy emphasizes on using natural methods, something he has applied in other areas of farming too. In 2020, he helped farmers prevent the locust attack on crops by using the sub soil as a pest repellent.

“I have always been in support of natural ways to cultivate, which eventually takes care of soil health, the environment and us. I look at methods that are not expensive for farmers. As a farmer I have a duty towards the soil and our future generations.”

Image Courtesy: The Hindu