The Better India · 55 days ago

Cr Dhan 310: How India’s First High-Protein Biofortified Rice Is Fighting Hidden Hunger

Across India's rice fields, farmers are planting a quiet answer to hidden hunger - CR Dhan 310, a biofortified variety with over 10 percent protein, developed not for higher yields but for better nourishment. In Odisha's tribal hills and Uttar Pradesh's plains, farmers like Hemanta Pradhan and Rajesh Singh Yadav are learning to trust a grain that looks familiar but offers something more, grown through collectives where 57 percent of members are women. "Biofortified rice is developed through conventional breeding or genetic approaches to enhance its nutritional profile," explains one scientist, describing how researchers stacked protein traits into an everyday staple eaten two or three times a day. The real test isn't in laboratories but in whether neighbors watch early adopters and decide to plant it themselves, whether mothers accept the taste, whether the grain finds its way into baby food at Anganwadis and school feeding programs where invisible deficiencies quietly shape childhoods.