A rice research institute, celebrating its centenary
year, is working towards developing a high-yielding premium quality version of
Assam’s famed aromatic Joha to add to its avant-garde collection that includes
among others a diabetic-friendly purple rice variety.
The Assam Rice Research Institute (ARRI), about 20 km
away from Jorhat, began as a rice experimental station in 1923 to cater to the
issues faced by farmers from the Brahmaputra valley of the State.
The institute, which has played a key role in
increasing production and productivity of rice in the State since its
inception, came under the administrative control of Assam Agricultural
University (AAU) in 1969 as Rice Research Station.
On January 27, the station was re-designated as Assam
Agricultural University-Assam Rice Research Institute (AAU-ARRI).
AAU-ARRI chief scientist Sanjay Kumar Chetia said the
institute is now focused on need-based agriculture.
“That is the reason ARRI now does market survey,
invites stakeholders like farmers, retailers, wholesalers, millers and
companies for information on what aspect it should focus its research. For
instance, ARRI is now focusing its research on development of climate-smart
cultivars such as drought tolerant, biotic and abiotic stress tolerant,
anaerobic germination tolerant cultivars for direct-seeded rice,” said Chetia.
“The research also focuses on development of
biofortified rice varieties rich in zinc and iron content. Research work has
also been undertaken to develop high-yielding premium quality aromatic Joha
rice and high-yielding red rice varieties,” he said.
In 2022, ARRI developed and popularised a
high-yielding purple rice variety Labanya.
“There are many nutritional qualities that make
Labanya diabetic-friendly. It has a lower GI (<55), high dietary fibre,
higher antioxidant content (68 µg/ml), and higher phenolic compound (61 µg/ml).
To add to these, this variety has high head rice recovery and is easy to cook,”
Chetia said.
He, however, added that diabetic-friendly rice
varieties are not that popular among the farmers because of poor yield.
On other varieties, he said though there is great
demand for the aromatic Joha rice in Assam, it is not able to reach the markets
in other parts of the country as desired.
“This is mostly because the production of Joha rice is
lower than normal rice which could only meet the demands of the domestic
market. Also, the farmers are not aware of the market of Joha in the country
and profitability of this class of rice,” said Chetia, who is behind the
development of several rice varieties.
AAU-ARRI currently has 11 scientists and 30 research
scholars. It occupies about 50 hectares of land of which 40 hectares are
cultivable land.
Of these 40 hectares, about 13 hectares are being
utilised for research and in the remaining 27 hectares, quality seeds of
popular rice varieties are produced.
Research on rice is undertaken in six disciplines –
plant breeding, agronomy, soil science, plant pathology, entomology and plant
physiology.
So far, the institute has developed more than 45 rice
varieties through its breeding programme which include Ranjit, Bahadur,
Piyolee, Kushal and Moniram.
Ranjit and Bahadur have become a household name among
the farmers not only in Assam but also in neighbouring states like Bihar,
Odisha and West Bengal and countries like Nepal and Bhutan.
Earlier this month, three high-yielding rice varieties
developed by AAU-ARRI – Prachur, Satabdi and Patkai – were released for
cultivation.
Junior Scientist Jyoti Lekha Borah said the institute
is organising an international conference on “Next-Gen Preparedness for Food
Security and Environmental Sustainability” from November 22-24 as part of the
centenary year celebrations.
According to Chetia, AAU-ARRI is also focusing on
increasing the cropping intensity by shifting mono-crop areas to multiple
cropping.
Integrated farming system is another component
introduced among the farmers to increase their income, he said, adding research
is also aimed at soil and water conservation and reducing greenhouse gas
emissions.
AAU-ARRI is also engaged in foreign collaboration with
players like the Norwegian government, the International Rice Research
Institute, the Philippines, etc.
“The rise in the global population coupled with
extreme weather events arising from climate change have led to immense threats
to global food security. The AAU-ARRI and Norwegian government’s collaborative
RESILIENCE project aims at introduction, popularisation and dissemination of
climate-smart technologies among farmers to mitigate climate change.”
“The project is ongoing since 2018 in Sivasagar and
Golaghat districts of Assam. These districts are chronically flooded as well as
affected by intermittent drought-like conditions. Through this project, several
climate-smart rice varieties such as Ranjit Sub1, Bahadur Sub1, and Luit, etc
were introduced which benefited the flood-affected farmers of the state,”
Chetia said.
Other climate-smart technologies such as alternate
wetting and drying, systemic rice intensification, direct seeded rice, adoption
of drip and sprinkler irrigation systems, smart monitoring of pest and disease
problems through plant clinics, pest and disease forecasting systems have been
introduced, he said.
“The major activities undertaken in the collaborative
programme with IRRI, Philippines include the evaluation of genotypes under the
Assam condition, popularisation, and dissemination of the favourable genotypes
among the farmers of Assam.
The collaboration also led to the exploration and
collection of 6630 local landraces from Assam and northeastern states. These
germplasms are called the Assam rice collection and are valuable sources of
genes for various agronomic, physiological, biotic, and abiotic resistance and
nutritional traits,” he added.
PTI
