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Representative image BHUBANESWAR: Odisha is home to hundreds of aromatic rice varieties which are on the verge of extinction. To revive the aromatic small grain rice varieties of the state, rice scientist and honorary professor in plant breeding and genetics at the Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT), S R Das has started a project to collect the seed of these indigenous rice varieties and promote its cultivation among farmers. “Odisha produces aromatic rice similar to the famous Basmati rice and have qualities like pleasant fragrance with small and round grains, white colour and softness without much elongation on cooking. Unfortunately, due to lack of systematic effort for the collection, evaluation and genetic improvement of these much-valued short grained scented rices of the state, these varieties are slowly disappearing,” said Das, who collected seeds of these varieties from across the state and started a project of cultivating and collecting s ....