India, Dec. 10 -- P Narayanan Unny, the farmer and conservationist who brought global attention to Navara, Kerala's rare medicinal rice, passed away on the night of December 9 at his ancestral home in Karukamanikalam, Chittur. He was 67.

His death closes a remarkable chapter in the story of traditional rice cultivation in Kerala, for no single individual shaped the destiny of a grain as profoundly as he did. From the quiet banks of the Shokanashini river in Chittur, which forms part of Palakkad's storied rice bowl, Unny fought a long and patient battle to rescue Navara from the edge of disappearance and return it to a place of dignity in fields, homes, and Ayurvedic traditions.

Navara is not an ordinary crop. It is a two-thousand-year-o...