Babulal Dahiya Biography 
Babulal Dahiya is a farmer and poet best known for his experiments with different kinds of crops and preserving some rare varieties. This farmer from Madhya Pradesh is growing 110 varieties of rice in just 2 acres of land in Pithaurabad village in the Unchehara block of Satna district in Madhya Pradesh. He is 74 years now, and is busy in collecting different rice varieties since 2005. He also grows 100 more varieties of pulses, grains and vegetables in the remaining 6 acres of land. For his overall contributions towards the field of Indian agriculture and crops, government of India honoured him with Padma Shri in 2019. He has already turned down Maharashtra Government’s MP award before.
Babulal was born and brought up in a farmer’s family. For studies he moved to the nearby town. Yet he returns every weekend and holidays to help his father in farm. Since he belonged to an agricultural family, he knew everything about farming. He also writes poetry in local Bagheli language and talented in story telling too. After studies he worked as a postmaster and started writing columns for renowned publications like Navbharat Times. He also participated in poetry meets and performances. He joined the Madhya Pradesh Adiwasi Lok Kala Academy, and later documented Bagheli folk literature. He has already published five books on Bagheli oral folk literature and two poetic collections.
Later he started thinking how to preserve those rare varieties of rice which regularly appears in Bagheli folk tales and poems. When he understood that many of them have medicinal benefits and are required to be preserved, he set out with a mission in 1995. He started saving the rice varieties that he had heard about in folktales and songs. He started visiting each and every farmer across the country and collected unique varieties of rice. He sow them in the 2-acre space of his 8-acre land and still active in this mission.
Published: January 28, 2019
Updated: January 31, 2019
