Farmer noticed one unusual rice plant, selected its seeds for years and developed a paddy variety yielding 8,000 kg per hectare

Indrasan Singh was a farmer from Inderpuri village in Udham Singh Nagar district who developed a paddy variety after noticing an unusual plant growing among a crop of Ratna rice. What began as a single plant eventually became a farmer-bred variety that was cultivated beyond his own fields and later received support for further development.

Singh had been active in India’s freedom movement in 1942 and spent 18 months in the Gonda and Gorakhpur jails. After Independence, the Government of India allotted him around 15 acres of land in Inderpuri, where he settled and began cultivating the land.

The area was initially difficult to farm because it was covered by forest and affected by mosquitoes and algae. Singh gradually turned it into cultivable land.


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From freedom fighter to farmer-innovator

Singh was a prominent member of his community and was elected village Sarpanch eight times. Although his formal education ended after Class 5, he later became a member of the Uttar Pradesh Seeds and Tarai Development Corporation Limited.

In 1972, he received a Tamra Patra from then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in recognition of his contribution to the freedom movement.

During the 11th Shodh Yatra, held from May 26 to June 4, 2003, members of the Honey Bee Network visited Singh at his home and honoured him for his work. The group subsequently decided that his contribution should be recommended for national recognition by the National Innovation Foundation (NIF).

Singh also recalled meeting Mahatma Gandhi during the freedom struggle in Meerut jail, although in his later years he said his memory had weakened and he could no longer remember all events from the past.

One unusual Ratna plant led to the new paddy variety

The development of the variety began when Singh obtained a few seeds of the Ratna variety from Pantnagar University around eight years before the account was documented.

After planting them, he noticed that one plant looked different from the others in its shape and structure. He marked the plant and harvested its seeds separately.

The plant produced eight spikes, and Singh kept the seeds safely stored for the following season.

He planted those seeds again the next year and paid particular attention to the resulting plants. Singh continued this selection process for four years.

Eventually, he planted seedlings grown from the selected seeds on half an acre of land. The harvest surprised him, with the crop yielding 32 quintals per acre.

‘Indrasan’ paddy was reported to have high yield

The farmer-bred paddy variety was named “Indrasan”. According to the account, it had a yield of about 8,000 kg per hectare, which was described as high compared with conventional paddy varieties.

The variety was also reported to have a higher crop efficiency and grain recovery rate than other varieties, while the starch produced from the rice was described as being of superior quality.

One of its distinguishing features was its red-coloured roots.

The crop matured in about 120 days and grew to a height of around 80 to 100 cm, with spikelets of equal length. The variety was also reported to have high resistance to disease compared with traditional varieties.

Neighbouring farmers helped spread the seeds

Singh’s neighbours played a role in expanding the cultivation of the variety by planting its seeds on their own farms. Farmers who received the seeds later reported high yields and good-quality grain compared with commercially cultivated paddy varieties.

Singh subsequently distributed seeds to farmers in other districts of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The variety eventually appeared on the price list of standard seeds, while Singh converted his farm into a seed farm with assistance from Pantnagar University.

Dr Harvera helped move the variety towards wider use

Dr Harvera was among those who supported Singh’s efforts to advance the variety towards commercialisation.

Singh also received support from his family, particularly when he had to set aside around one acre of cultivable land for developing the variety.

Wider recognition followed after Kisan Bharti, a magazine associated with Pantnagar Agricultural University, published an article about his innovation in the mid-1970s. The publication helped increase awareness of Singh’s work and reportedly led to hundreds of letters reaching him from northern Indian states.

Farmer innovation draws national attention

Singh’s story was later identified during the Honey Bee Network’s Shodh Yatra as an example of a farmer developing and spreading a crop variety through his own selection and experimentation.

The decision to recommend him for national recognition reflected the extent to which the variety had moved beyond his own farm. According to the account, it had spread across thousands of hectares of the Indo-Gangetic plains, making it one of the early farmer-developed varieties to achieve such diffusion.