After the success of Bt cotton in India, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India is keen on introducing plant biotechnology in improving the yield and nutritional quality of rice.
Rice was a major agricultural produce and the state of West Bengal and the scientific fraternity of Bengal would gain.
“The department has granted a fund of Rs 4 crore to botany department of Calcutta University for conducting a project called Translational research of Transgenic rice which will help improve the nutritional quality of rice and also protect the plant thus giving higher yield making it more viable for farmers,” said Swapan K Datta, coordinator of the DBT programme support and senior plant biotechnologist & CGIAR Rice crop, who is spearheading this research.
West Bengal was a leading producer of rice producing roughly 160 lakh tons last year.
This could be doubled if certain genes were introduced through plant biotechnology in the local low-yielding traditional varieties like Khitis, Shatabdi, Swarna, IR64 and BR29, said Datta. This could be done by introducing a single SD1 gene in the crop which dwarfs the height, thus preventing lodging and thereby increasing yield 2-3 times to 3-4 tons per hectare, according to research done by International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
The department was working on high-iron, high-protein and high beta-carotene variety of rice called Golden indica rice which could be directly used in the field or used in other commercial varieties like IR64 and BR29 thereby improving the nutritional quality.
“Work is on at different stages of trial and it would be available for commercial usage in two years time,” he claimed.
“Work on the other dominant state agricultural product, potato, was on along similar lines,” he added. He claimed farmers lost money on the traditional tall varieties of rice and on local varieties with low yield, said Datta.
Earlier at a press conference in the city, state agricultural minister, Naren De, said that the state paddy production this year was likely to touch 162 lakh ton as against 160 lakh ton last year.
The minister failed to attend the symposium organized by All India Crop Biotechnology Association and University of Calcutta.
Cotton productivity had been enhanced through introduction of Bt cotton, and farmers had reportedly increased cotton production by as much as 12-13 per cent, making India second largest producer and third largest exporter of cotton in the world.
This could be replicated in case of rice, claimed experts and scientists.
