Biodiversity conservation is a new approach to addressing
sustainability in a rapidly changing world. Biodiversity is intrinsically
essential for our existence and is fundamentally valuable in its own
right. North-east India, including Assam, is endowed with
exceptionally rich biodiversity. Assam is traditionally a rice growing
area. Rice plays a pivotal role in the socio-cultural life of the people of
the state. Besides, the region is inhabited by a large number of ethnic
groups whose preference also varies from one another. All these
factors are responsible for evolution of a large number of rice varieties
in the region. The important indigenous varieties of Assam are unique
to the state and not found in any other part of the world. In the present
investigation, a cluster of fourteen villages under Jorhat and Golaghat
subdivisions was chosen to study and uncover the indigenous diversity
of rice from these interior areas of the state. The status and prospects of
these varieties were also analyzed through different participatory tools
like crop and varietal diversity matrix tool, simple ranking, matrix
ranking, etc (Walter and Marja 2007). During the investigation, several
indigenous rice varieties were identified in both the areas like, Joha
(scented rice), Bora (glutinous rice), Chokowa (soft rice), Bao (red
rice) and various Sali rice varieties. It was found that there is an ample
scope towards sustainable livelihood improvement as well as security
for the people of these areas since the identified specialty rice varieties
have significant marketable prospects which could be utilized to
exploit the market potential through proper channeling and market
linking and generate an additional income source in the climate change
scenario.