Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Sept.28: The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) has produced the country’s first non-GM (genetically modified) herbicide-tolerant rice varieties, which may be seeded directly and save water and labour over traditional transplanting. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to officially unveil the two new varieties on Tuesday.
Farmers can spray Imazethapyr, a broad-spectrum herbicide, on the varietals Pusa Basmati 1979 and Pusa Basmati 1985 because they have a mutant acetolactate synthase (ALS) gene. This eliminates the need for nurseries, where paddy seeds are nurtured into young plants before being removed and transplanted in the main field 25-35 days later.
Paddy transplantation requires a lot of time and water. The seedlings must be transplanted into a field that has been “puddled” or tilled in standing water. The plants are irrigated virtually daily for the first three weeks or so after transplanting to maintain a water depth of 4-5 cm. When the crop is in the tillering (stem development) stage, farmers continue to water every two to three days for the next four to five weeks.
“Water is a natural herbicide that takes care of weeds in the paddy crop’s early-growth period. The new varieties simply replace water with Imazethapyr and there’s no need for nursery, puddling, transplanting and flooding of fields. You can sow paddy directly, just like wheat,” said A K Singh, director of IARI.
Both Pusa Basmati 1979 and 1985 were developed by crossing two popular types, Pusa 1121 and Pusa 1509, with ‘Robin.’ The latter is a mutant line produced from Nagina 22, an upland rice variety that can withstand drought. S Robin, a rice breeder from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University in Coimbatore, discovered the mutant for Imazethapyr tolerance.
In response to labour constraints and diminishing water tables, farmers in Punjab and Haryana are already using direct planting of rice (DSR). DSR has been applied to almost 6 lakh of the total 44.3 lakh hectares of rice land in the two states this year.
