Bakul Phool is one of those heritage rice varieties with a heavy panicle – so when the rice is milled, you would notice that it is large in size. Many have even mistaken it for wheat! But, it is heritage rice, and our sources at the farm have explained that since the grain emits a gracious, yet deep and rich fragrance, similar to the bakul flowers, it was given that name. Some others have told us that the rice flowers resemble the bakul flowers, hence the name.
In his book, ‘ Seeds of Tradition, Seeds of Future’ Dr.Debal Deb writes that the yield potential of Bakul phool was realized when a farmer-volunteer grew it in his farm in Bankura with appropriate supply of organic nutrients and crop spacing. Many heritage rice varieties have greater mean panicle density and grain weight than most high yielding varieties –in short this means that even when grown with zero agrochemical inputs rice varieties, like Bakul Phool can often out-perform most HYVs in terms of grain output