Government notifies the use of drought resistant PB2 variety of Basmati rice for cultivation

Tags: Economy/Finance Science and Technology

The Union Agriculture ministry has notified the use of drought -tolerant basmati rice developed by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) for large-scale release.

The new variety of Pusa Basmati (PB) 1882 can withstand deficient rainfall during the flowering stage of the grain. In the traditional variety inadequate rain during flowering of plant leads to a drop in the rice productivity 

Also there will be no need for transplanting of the rice as is done in traditional methods. This variety of rice can be sown directly in the field resulting in huge saving of water.

According to S Gopala Krishnan, principal scientist, IARI, rice grown through the transplanting method requires close to 3000 litres of water for producing one kg of rice, while the new variety sown through direct seeding method results in huge savings on water usage. 

He also said that the new variety during two years of field trials had given an average yield of 4.6 tonne/hectare compared to 4.2 tonne/hectare reported for its parent variety PB 1.

Basmati growing region of India 

The new PB.2 variety has been recommended for cultivation in key Basmati rice growing regions of India.

The areas of Basmati Rice production in India are the Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttarakhand and western Uttar Pradesh.

India is one of the leading exporters of basmati rice in the world. Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, U.S and Yemen Republic are the major buyers of basmati rice from India. (Source APEDA)

Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI)

It was set up as Agricultural Research Institute in 1905 at Pusa, Bihar. It was shifted to New Delhi in 1936.

After Independence its name was changed to Indian Agricultural Research Institute. 

It is basically engaged in the research in the field of agriculture and its allied field for increasing crop productivity and developing integrated crop management technologies for a sustainable agricultural production system.

It developed the hybrid seeds of wheat and rice which led to Green revolution in India.

Headquarters: New Delhi 

Director: Ashok Kumar Singh