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.
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