While addressing the participants at the online panel discussion on ‘Agricultural Innovations and Consumer Markets: Benefits and Challenges for Telangana Sona Rice’, organised by the Indian School of Business (ISB), Dr. B. Janardhan Reddy, IAS, APC and Secretary, Department of Agriculture, Government of Telangana underlined that Telangana Sona Rice can augur well in building a healthier India and can address lifestyle issues like diabetes.
Telangana Sona had low glycemic index (GI), which is good for rice eaters. This new rice variety can become a new and a healthy food preference, he added. With its intrinsic health benefits and enhanced production in the State, the new paddy variety has good potential reach out to various consumers across the globe.
The need of the hour is to catch the imagination of the consumers on the health benefits associated with Telangana Sona Rice and also build upon its export potential, he added. He called upon ISB to work closely with all the stakeholders and take this initiative forward.
Dr. V. Praveen Rao, Vice Chancellor, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU) underlined that Telangana Sona Rice variety which was developed strategically by University, gels with the local climatic conditions and is a disease resistant, short duration crop with high protein content and low glycemic index. PJTSAU adopts a multi-pronged approach in terms partnerships, innovations, research, mapping, value chain in offering more value to the stakeholders, he added.
Prof. Madhu Viswanathan, Senior Assistant Professor Marketing, ISB as the lead faculty for the Telangana Sona, shared his insights on how the Telangana Sona Rice branding and marketing study was carried out. The results of the study show that there is a need for segmentation specific positioning strategy covering both health and taste attributes of the rice to reach the mass market.
M. Ravikanth Reddy, Founder of The Great Hyderabad Food and Travel Club highlighted that with growing awareness on eating healthy and tasty food, Telangana Sona Rice can greatly supplement the eating habits of the consumers and can foster a healthier tomorrow. The need of the hour is to promote the health benefits of Telangana Sona Rice by adopting a holistic marketing approach, he said. If promoted well, there will be many takers for this new healthy rice variety, he added.
