India avanza en biotecnologías para climas extremos

India Developing Seeds That Can Withstand Extreme Weather
6:03 AM, julio 27, 2009

NEW DELHI (Dow Jones)--India is developing gene varieties for rice and other
seeds that can withstand extreme weather fluctuations such a droughts or floods
lasting as long as two weeks, according to a senior scientist at the state-run
Indian Council for Agricultural Research.

This can potentially reduce the country's dependence on annual monsoon rains
which are the only source of water for nearly 60% of India's farmlands and its
vulnerability in times of excessive rains.

Such high dependence on natural irrigation and the inability to limit
flooding in years of plentiful rains have led to wide fluctuations in India's
crop output and gross domestic product because two-thirds of the country's 1.1
billion people are still dependent on agriculture for livelihood.

"We are trying to develop multi-tolerance crops by combining genes," ICAR
Deputy Director General Anil Kumar Singh said in a recent interview. The gene
varieties, which have been developed so far, are very specific to either
drought or floods and not both.

But the challenge is developing crops with resistance while ensuring the
yield doesn't drop in the process, because "extreme variations in weather are
happening with increasing frequency these days," Singh said. "We already have
drought-resistant varieties of seeds but the yields are low. We don't want to
compromise on yields while developing the genes that can withstand multiple
stresses."

He said multi-tolerance genes are being developed for wheat, rice and most
other crops. The research is being done by the National Institute of Abiotic
Stress Management, set up in January 2009. This year, monsoon rains have been
18% below normal until July 23 while excess rains in some parts have caused
floods that have damaged the rice crop.

In the northern state of Assam and Orissa in east, rice sowing has been hit
by floods. However, in some of parts of Assam, neighboring Manipur, Nagaland,
parts of Uttar Pradesh, and Jharkhand in central India, the state governments
have said the situation is drought-like due to deficient rains.

India's area under summer-sown rice is down by about 21% to 11.5 million
hectares till July 17, government data showed. In a normal year, the country
has about 45 million hectares under rice cultivation.

While working on seeds with higher resistance various weather changes, ICAR
is also seeking to improve general productivity in the farming sector, Singh
said.

India's crop productivity, which the federal government has said was
stagnating, could be improved substantially through more usage of fertilizers
and expanded irrigation facilities, he said.

"Punjab and Haryana have one of the highest yields in the country because of
better inputs. We can increase yields elsewhere in the country by atleast 50%
with the seeds and technology we have now," he said.

Crop yields in rain-fed areas is about one ton per hectare, Singh said. It is
about 2.5 tons in irrigated areas.

Average rice productivity is about 2.2 tons/hectare in India which is way
lower than that in China, the largest producer of the grain.

"China's fertilizer usage is almost two-and-a-half times more than India's
and they are into hybrid rice cultivation, which has a higher yield," Singh
said adding India has started cultivation of hybrid rice only a few years ago.

-By Arpan Mukherjee, Dow Jones Newswires; 91 11 4356 3310;
arpan.mukherjee@dowjones.com