New Delhi, March 21 -- Climate Change and You is a fortnightly newsletter written by Bibek Bhattacharya and Sayantan Bera. Subscribe to the newsletter to get it directly in your inbox.

Dear reader,

Recently, while working on a story on farmer-owned companies, I came across an ancient variety of rice. The heirloom rice variety, known as Kala Namak, comes from eastern Uttar Pradesh. It's also known as Buddha rice: The legend goes that Lord Buddha distributed seeds of this rice to his devotees as a blessing, after attaining Nirvana. It's an aromatic, short-grain variety with a low glycaemic index, making it suitable for people with diabetes. Another positive of this rice is that it contains three-times the protein content of regular variet...