A rice variant that can withstand bacterial blight

It’s a new Samba Mahsuri rice variety, with three genes added. This gene fortification helps it ward off the deadly bacterial blight.

Consequently, with the Samba Mahsuri variety grown over several millions of hectares across the country, it is fast emerging as a boon to farmers.

The useful genes, identified by Indian scientists using a biotechnology tool called Marker Assisted Selection, were introduced into the genetic background of Samba Mahsuri to produce a new derivative.

The improved variety has been subjected to multi-location trials and is now available for commercial cultivation.

Samba Mahsuri, noted for its high yields and excellent cooking quality, had, over the past decade, fallen victim to a serious bacterial blight disease, which wrecked 10-50 per cent of yields. There are no effective bactericides to control the pest.

Biotech solution In a collaborative project, scientists from CSIR-CCMB (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research—Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology) and ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR), both located in Hyderabad, took up the challenge to find a biotechnology solution several years ago. They got the genetic breakthrough by identifying the three genes that exhibited resistance to the blight.

They then did the lab work, grew the new, improved variety on farmers’ fields and demonstrated increased yields. It retains the quality and characteristics of the parent whilst being resistant to blight. Being a non-transgenic plant farmers can save their seed for subsequent use, the scientists explained.

The improved Samba Mahsuri has been cultivated on 90,000 hectares of fields in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh etc., and is fast gaining acceptance from farmers, said Ramesh V Sonti and Raman Meenakshi Sundaram of CCMB and IIRR.

CCMB and IIRR have joint ownership of the technology and recently licensed it to MetaHelix Life Sciences, Bengaluru.

“The company will distribute seeds from the ensuing season and hopefully expand the reach to a larger number in the near term. It’s a business proposition for them and we will get our licence fee equally,” Sonti told BusinessLine .

Also called BPT5204, it was originally developed by the Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University (in undivided Andhra Pradesh). The improved Samba Mahsuri has been registered as a variety by the Protection of Plant Varieties & Farmer’s Rights Authority (PPV & FRA) with joint ownership by the two Institutes.

Standing tall After the November 2014 Hud Hud cyclone battered the coastal Andhra Pradesh districts, there was an outbreak of the bacterial blight in the rice bowl district of East Godavari. “We provided 10 kg of seed to farmers, who raised the standing crop without it falling prey to the pest,” Sonti said.

This is the story of one of the first rice varieties developed through the use of biotechnology in the country. It recently won the Biotech Product & Process Development and Commercialisation Award for 2016.

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