On January 3, 2026, the CIKS team participated in the Indian Folk Rice Conference 2026. The event was organised by CREATE at Pachaiyappa’s College, Chennai. It brought together folk rice custodians, farmers, researchers, policymakers, and civil society organizations from nationwide. Participants advanced conservation, seed sovereignty, and resilient food systems through dynamic knowledge exchange and collaboration. The CIKS team showcased an impressive array of conserved traditional rice varieties, diverse paddy ear heads, and the CIKS Compendium of Traditional Rice Varieties publication via a captivating exhibition display.
Dr.K.Vijayalakshmi participated as one of the speakers in the session “Regional Reflections: The Folk Rice Revival Initiatives in India—Achievements, Challenges, and Opportunities,” delivering a presentation on “Reviving Traditional Rice Varieties: The CIKS Journey.” Mr. A.V. Balasubramanian participated as one of the speakers in the session on “Conservation and Genetic Diversity: Guardians of Rice Heritage,” where he presented on “Supporting the Conservation of Traditional Rice Varieties”.
CREATE also launched their insightful report, “Nutritional Power of India’s Folk Rice Varieties- a comparative analysis of 20 folk varieties versus common ones from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka”, tested at NIFTEM-Thanjavur—with Dr. K. Vijayalakshmi invited among the delegates for the release.
CIKS team members Ms. Subhashini Sridhar, Mr. Subramanian, Mr. Vetriselvan, Ms. Janani, Ms. Sruthi, and Ms. Sri Varshini attended the conference, fostering valuable collaborations to advance folk rice conservation and scale resilient food systems nationwide.
