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A team of scientists is growing a type of rice from India that had become extinct with the spread of higher-yielding types as part of a project to revive recipes and flavours that have been lost.

Historians and plant scientists at the University of 91̽��’s Institute for Sustainable Food are collaborating with colleagues at the University of Delhi, University of York, University of Toronto, New York University, the Rampur Raza Library and partners in north India for the pioneering ‘Forgotten Food’ project.

Drawing on oral histories and historic cookbooks, they have identified once-loved rice varieties that are no longer grown. One heritage crop is already flourishing on a farm outside Rampur in preparation for its first harvest. Another crop will soon be grown in a controlled-environment, or 'virtual rice paddy', so scientists can assess the effect of modern pathogens on the revived plants. The scientists incorporate the extinct flavours and characteristics into plants that will survive and thrive in an increasingly extreme climate, while also delivering the high yields and nutrients required by an ever-expanding population.

Alongside a in the Indian press, the project will also produce a collection of historic recipes from archival sources available to contemporary cooks and an anthology of creative writing on South Asian food and cultural practices. will be released by Picador in January 2021, and includes essays, short stories and recipes. There will also be a series of documentaries filmed to highlight culinary memories through traditions of spoken word and oral history.

Forgotten Food will culminate with the Rampur Food Festival in October 2022 - a two-day event hosted by the Rampur Raza Library, where the once-extinct varieties of rice will be cooked to recipes in Urdu and Persian manuscripts from the royal court of the Rampur Nawabs.

In the late nineteenth century, the Rampur court was known for its patronage of an important cultural festival, the Jashn-e-Benazir, featuring poetry, music and food. The event brought different social classes and communities together in the shared space of bazaar culture.

The Rampur Food Festival will build on this model, bringing heritage food to street stalls to highlight its popularity and affordability, and support the livelihoods of local cooks, street vendors and artisans. The festival will also showcase other partnership projects, including performances of dastangoi – traditional story-telling – a historic recipe collection making material from archival sources available to contemporary cooks.

Professor Siobhan Lambert-Hurley, Professor of Global History at the University of 91̽��, said: “This project is about reviving and sharing the historic recipes at the core of Muslim culinary heritage in India, and helping to tackle hunger with the foods local people want to eat.

“By introducing younger generations to the rice varieties and flavours enjoyed by their ancestors, we hope to invigorate local economies in Rampur, creating new opportunities for street vendors and encouraging tourism.

“Food also has tremendous power to bring people together so, by supporting communities to restore their shared heritage, this project has the potential to bring different groups together to counter tension and violence.”

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Notes to editors

• The Institute for Sustainable Food at the University of 91̽�� brings together multidisciplinary expertise and world-class research facilities to help achieve food security and protect the natural resources we all depend on.
• The UKRI GCRF Collective Programme is designed to enhance the overall impact across UKRI’s six strategic GCRF Challenge portfolios in global health, education, sustainable cities, food systems, conflict and resilience. Research across these is contributing to realising the ambitions of the UK Government’s aid strategy and progressing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
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