IARI’s new rice variety to lift non-basmati exports

Srinivasulu, a farmer from Alur, Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh, in April 2021, harvested a new rice variety Pusa Samba 1850 formulated by Indian Agricultural Analysis Institute (IARI) with a yield of about 4 tonnes for each hectare.

The new variety is an enhanced edition of Pusa Samba Mahsuri (BPT 5204) which has been greatly cultivated by farmers in southern as effectively as japanese areas of the country. Pusa Samba Mahsuri variety is mostly grown in the course of the Samba time (November-March) in the South and has a major share in the country’s non-basmati rice exports. The variety is characterised by medium slender grain and excellent cooking high quality.

No pesticides

Sudheer Agarwal, a farmer from Bhurekha village of Mathura district of Uttar Pradesh, is upbeat about the prospects of taking up a new non-Basmati variety – Pusa Samba 1850 in the forthcoming kharif time.

Agarwal mentioned that the key explanation for taking the non-basmati rice variety formulated by IARI is larger yield and pretty much absence of pesticide use. All through the past two yrs of subject demonstration throughout the country, farmers like Srinivasulu and Agarwal have acquired an normal yield in the vary of 4-7 tonnes/ha.

The Pusa Samba 1850 variety formulated by IARI — an enhanced edition of Samba Mahsuri (BPT 5204) — a variety is at the moment becoming grown throughout Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and Bihar on about 1.5 million hectares.

On the other hand, Samba Mahsuri is highly vulnerable to blast illness which results in major yield and high quality losses.

For handling the illness, farmers have been utilizing much more pesticides alongside with incurring larger labour cost, in addition to obtaining an adverse effect on the setting.

Samba Mahsuri was unveiled in 1989 by Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural College, Hyderabad for industrial cultivation.

On the other hand, with a breeder seed indent of 42.eight quintals for Kharif 2022, Samba Mahsuri remains a preferred variety amongst farmers in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

“There are about 320 rice types in the national seed chain at existing, of which only twenty five types have a breeder seed-indent of much more than forty quintals.

“ Inspite of Samba Mashuri becoming, much more than a few a long time previous variety it even now occupies twenty fourth situation in the national breeder seed indent which is testimony to its level of popularity,” Gopala Krishnan S, Principal Scientist, IARI, mentioned.

According to Krishnan S of IARI, who is the brain at the rear of development of Pusa Samba 1850, the variety has been formulated utilizing a Marker Assisted Range-derived blast resistant as a result of insertion of a few governing resistance to blast illness genes – Pi54, Pi1 and Pita.

This gene fortification helps ward off the deadly bacterial blight.

Bigger yield

The Pusa Sambha – 1850 variety of rice went as a result of subject trials at net blast very hot places in the country this kind of as Malan / Palanpur (Himachal Pradesh), Jammu, Ambikapur (Chhattisgarh), Nellore (Andhra Pradesh), Gudalur (Tamil Nadu), Lonavala (Maharashtra), Ponnampet (Karnataka) & Hazaribagh (Jharkand).

In a massive-scale subject demonstration, in Kharif 2019 done throughout Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the new rice variety experienced given an normal yield of 6.fifty six tonnes/ha. In Shidenur of Raichur district of Karnataka, the normal yield was about 9.3 tonnes/ha.

In the subject demonstration done at the farmers’ subject in the course of Kharif time of 2020, the yield of Pusa Samba 1850 ranged in between 5.5 and eight tonnes throughout Chemmangudi and Krishnagiri (Tamil Nadu), Shahjanhanpur and Mathura (Uttar Pradesh), Ganagavathi (Karnataka) and Cuttack (Odisha).

The intent was to get volumes for millers and traders to even further evaluate its potential amongst millers and customers.

“Pusa Sambha 1850, is a blast resistant enhanced edition of Sambha Mahshuri (BPT 5204), the most traded rice variety in the non-Basmati phase. It will even further fortify non-Basmati exports which have crossed 13 million tonnes in the course of 2020-21, the optimum in the background of rice export,” Ashok Singh, Director, IARI mentioned.

 

Breeder seed

In the upcoming two yrs, a massive-scale cultivation of the new variety is predicted to just take area.

Presently, breeder seed is supplied to non-public providers and NGOs for multiplication. IARI has signed an MOU with Hyderabad-based Eldorado Agri-tech Private Ltd for multiplications of seeds.

The breeder seed has been presented by IARI for multiplications into foundation seeds and licensed seeds in the forthcoming kharif time.

According to an agriculture ministry official, by 2022, massive scale industrial cultivation of Pusa Sambha 1850 rice variety is predicted which would not only improve India’s non-basmati rice exports prospects but also cut down cost of creation for farmers for the reason that of larger yield and small cost for pesticides.

According to Agricultural and Processed Foods Product Exports Progress Authority (APEDA), the non-basmati rice exports rose sharply in 2020-21 each in phrases of quantity and worth in comparison to earlier year (2019-twenty).

The quantity of non-basmati rice exports rose by 159 for each cent to 13.08 million tonnes (mt) in 2020-21 in comparison to earlier year though worth of exports jumped by 137 for each cent to $4,796 million from $2,020 million claimed in earlier year.

Sandip Das is a Delhi-based writer on agriculture and food stuff security. Sights are own.