Minister releases world’s first genome edited rice varieties with higher yield, shorter duration.

By Prabhudatta Mishra.

India has set a target to reduce acreage under rice by 5 million hectares (mh) and raise the production from the reduced area by 10 million tonnes (mt) to expand the cultivation of oilseeds and pulses, two major areas of concern where the country is struggling to attain self-sufficiency.

Addressing an event organised by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in New Delhi to release the world’s first genome edited rice varieties, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the government has started preparing the “-5,+10” plan under which there will be target to reduce area by 5 mh and increase production by 10 mt.

“It is possible to achieve this target. The reason is rice area has to be reduced to grow more oilseed and pulses crops in those areas since India imports pulses and edible oils. There is a challenge before us to make the country self-sufficient in edible oils and pulses, for which the government has already launched separate missions. To make these missions successful, we all have to work together in which agriculture scientists have a bigger role to play,” Chouhan said.

However, the Minister did not disclose the tentative duration of the “-5,+10” plan to achieve the target.

The area under rice in 2024-25 crop year (July-June) dropped to 47.73 mh from 47.83 mh and production surged to 135.84 mt from 127.86 mt. The production data included only for kharif and rabi seasons. On the other hand, pulses production in both kharif and rabi seasons was 23.02 mt from 25.49 mh in 2024-25, as against 22.17 mt output from 25.36 mh acreage in 2023-24.

Genome edited varieties

Highlighting that the release of genome edited varieties of rice to help in achieving the target due to higher yield, Chouhan said the government is ready to provide all help to ICAR realise objectives of higher production, which is the one of the six-point agenda drawn by the Agriculture Ministry. Other five topics in the agenda are lower input costs, reasonable price for crops, crop damage assistance, crop diversification and natural farming, he added.

ICAR’s director general Mangi Lal Jat said it is possible to increase production by identifying the low yielding areas of a crop and bringing them at par with other areas where productivity is high, through suitable interventions.

Asked to share his view on genetically modified (GM) crops, the Minister declined to comment saying the matter is subjudice. But he clarified that genome edited technology is different from GM technology. He said in the seeds developed through genome edited technology, there is no addition of any foreign gene, unlike in GM

Former director of Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) A K Singh said that after doing a DNA sequencing of a crop, genome editing is now used globally to remove the undesired elements so that better results are achieved from the crop. ICAR’s Deputy Director General Devendra Yadava said that the cabinet in 2022 has approved the standard operating procedure (SOP) on genome editing under which there will be no need to seek approval of the Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), which is India’s regulator of GM crops.

Yadava also said there is a new variety of mustard which has been developed through genome edited technology has been under testing. Agriculture scientists of 53 institutes under ICAR are currently working on genome edited technology to develop new varieties in wheat, mustard, cotton, tomato, banana, tea and tobacco as well as in fishery sector.

Jat said that ICAR has decoded to shift from “supply-driven research” to “demand-driven research”, under which it is developing a module through which feedback from farmers will be accumulated and integrated in the research system. He also emphasised on the need to motivate the youth in agriculture, who are the farmers of the future.

Published Date: May 4, 2025