Dadaji Khobragade: The Creator of HMT Rice

A school dropout beats trained agriculturists

Dadaji Ramaji Khobragade, who discovered the HMT rice, a
highly successful rice variety which yields 80 percent more
rice than the conventional variety, is among the most
powerful Indian rural entrepreneurs listed by the Forbes
magazine. HMT is now grown all over India, on some
1,00,000 acres across five states.

The 70-year old Dadaji Ramaji Khobragade hails from a
small forest village called in Naghbid taluka of Chandipur in
Nanded district of Maharashtra. He owns 1.5 acres of land
and his income is a mere Rs. 12,000 per annum. He sold
two acres due to the illness of his son. At present,
Khobragade cultivates three acres, once given to his son by a relative. Occasionally, he works
as a daily wage labourer to support his seven-member family.
Khobragade selected and bred the HMT rice variety from the conventional Patel 3, a popular
variety of that time, developed by Dr. J. P. Patel of JNKV Agriculture University, Jabalpur.
Khobragade succeeded after five years of continuous research and study done on a small farm
owned by him without any support from the scientific community. This is a remarkable
achievement for a man who left school after the third standard due to adverse financial
conditions at home and because his help was necessary at the farm.

His rice variety has an average yield of 40 to 45 quintals per hectare with high rice recovery (80
percent), better smell and better cooking quality in comparison with the parent variety.

The Big Idea
In 1983, Khobragade noticed three yellow-seeded paddy spikes commonly called as lomb
planted with the Patel-3 variety of paddy. He picked these three spikes, brought them home and
stored them in a plastic bag. The next year he sowed the seeds of this yellow variety separately
in his farm. As his farm was close to the jungle, he built up a fence made of thorny bushes
around the rice plants, to protect them from wild animals.
Noticing the high yield of this variety, he preserved its seeds. The following year he cultivated
this variety separately and got nearly ten kilograms of husked rice. On cooking the particular
variety of rice he found them to be tastier than the Patel variety.
That was the beginning of a long journey. In 1988, he sowed four kilograms of seeds in an area
of 10 square feet and produced 400 to 450 kg of rice. The next year, 100 to 150 kg seeds were
sown, from which he obtained 50 bags of paddy and he sold the seeds (about 40 bags) to one
of the traders at Nagpur. Since the name of the variety was not known, the trader purchased the
seeds in the name of Swarna Sona.
In 1990, Bhimrao Shinde, a large Nanded landowner, bought 150 kilograms of these seeds and
sowed it in four acres of land. He obtained 90 bags of yield and sold the same to a trader from
Talodi. The trader named this variety as HMT as HMT watches were very popular at that time
and he had recently acquired a new one. Ever since, the name HMT has stuck. Most of the
farmers in the Vidharbha region have started growing this variety. This variety is now being
marketed in Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
Discredit Where Due
Clearly, this has not been an easy journey for Khobragade. When Khobragade contacted the
paddy research centre, they refused to recognize his farm research, as it was not based on
scientific research techniques.
In 1994, Khobragade was approached by the Siddheshwari Rice Station, a part of Punjabrao
Krishi Vidyapith. The Vidyapith took five kilograms of seeds of the new variety under the pretext
of experimenting. But in 1998, it released a variety named PKV HMT. The Vidyapith claimed
that Khobragades variety was impure and that they purified the local HMT and released it
under its new avatar called PKV HMT. To Khobragade, there was no apparent difference
between his and Vidyapiths variety. In simple terms, Khobragades innovation was stolen and
released in Vidyapiths name.
This classic case of academic fraternity refusing to acknowledge the achievements of someone
outside the circle was published in The Hindu newspaper. Meena Menon, a journalist from
Mumbai wrote to NIF highlighting the saga of struggle that Khobragade had gone through.
Vikalpa, an NGO from Nagpur wrote to NIF in December 2002 enclosing detailed information.
Khobragade, the innovator complains: Now these new seeds are sold for Rs.1,200 a quintal.
What have I got out of all this? The government wants to deprive me of any credit and the
variety they claim to have released is exactly like mine - I dont think there is a difference.
Professor Anil Gupta of NIF was instrumental in Khobragade getting his due. Dadaji received
the National Award from National Innovation Foundation in 2005 and a Diffusion Award for the
same in 2009.
Harsh reality makes him express his hope of being rewarded for this innovation. He declares his
wish of sharing ideas with other farmers and feels If other agriculturists follow my way of
working in the field, it would result in higher yielding varieties and better prices for the crop. One
cant help but admire his indomitable spirit.

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