A Press Trust of India (PTI) story published today reported that farmers in the district of Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh are taking up black wheat farming.
The peer-reviewed e-magazine Just Agriculture says that black wheat was ‘developed' by a Chinese institute of crop genetics, Shanxi Academy of Agricultural Science, after spending 20 years in research and various experiments. According to them, black wheat is cultivated in Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat.
Shahjahanpur’s district magistrate Umesh Pratap Singh was quoted in PTI as saying, ”This time, black wheat was produced in over 250 acres by more than 200 farmers in the district. At the local level, the wheat is being bought at ₹6,000 per quintal, while in the bigger cities, it is being sold from ₹10,000 to ₹12,000 per quintal. The district administration is making efforts that the farmers benefit at the local level.” He shared farmers are being encouraged to grow black wheat to increase their income and the state government will discuss installing food processing units for this particular crop ‘in the next meeting of the 'Udyog Bandhu’.’ It’s an organisation run by the state government to ‘facilitate investment in industrial and service sectors.’
Avadhesh Verma, a farmer in Dadraul area of the Shahjahanpur, shared with PTI, "I grew black wheat on 10 bigha of land (around 6.24 acre). Owing to no market here, the wheat was sold at a very low price. However, it was sold from ₹80-100 per kg in the online market.” A quick google search for black wheat revealed that seeds and flour of this variety are available for purchase on Amazon.
The peer reviewed magazine has listed a few nutritional benefits of this produce saying that it contains carbohydrate, amino acids and the protein content is slightly higher than regular wheat. It might be a good idea to give it a try to change things up in the kitchen.
