India develops hybrid organic rice variety with salt tolerance

Now, rice farmers growing in saline waters of northern districts of the states, especially Kattampally, can grow a new salt-tolerant organic rice variety developed under the organic crop breeding programme of the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS) at Pilikkode in Kasaragod, India.

This new hybrid organic rice variety, named Ezhome-4, is the only variety released for cultivation in the present saline eco-zone of the Northern region, especially Kattampally. It is one of the two hybrid organic rice varieties recently released for commercial use by RARS, part of the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU). According to scientists at RARS, Ezhome-4 is the result of a series of breeding programs since 2002. They believe that this new variety is perfectly suited for the naturally saline-prone Kaipad region, as well as other normally non-saline flooded areas.

Indian breeders report that these hybrid organic rice varieties are high yielders in the Kaipad region as well as in the Kattampally region. The average yield is about 5.1 tonnes/ha in the moderately saline Kaipad organic eco-zone (this yield is very high as the average rice yield in India is very low at 3.59 tonnes/ha; whereas in Vietnam it is 5.53 tonnes/ha according to FAOSTAT, 2011, updated July 2015). The average straw yield is 10 tonnes/ha. Another new organic rice variety called “Jaiva” is suitable for normal non-saline wetlands.

According to Dr. Vanaja (one of the organic hybrid rice breeders) the organic rice varieties were first introduced in an international conference on organic farming systems when a paper on it was presented. She said the paper was also published in the International Journal of Organic Farming in 2013.

The hybrid rice variety “Jaiva” is also the result of breeding programs conducted 13 years ago and has been successfully tested in farmers’ field experiments. The average rice yield of this variety is 5.2 tons/ha and straw yield is 9 tons/ha under completely organic farming conditions.

It is learnt that the research on these two new varieties spanned a period of 13 years and was conducted at the Research Station of RARS and at the Research Station at Panniyur.

According to the National Agricultural Extension Center