One of the advantages of these Pusa basmati rice variants is that the farmers can get away with less use of labour for transplantation.

By ETV Bharat English Team

New Delhi: Two variants of Basmati Rice, developed by PUSA scientists, have helped farmers to reduce water usage by almost 33 per cent as compared to traditional flooding methods, and these rice varieties are found to be the first non-genetically modified herbicide tolerant.

The farmers are getting benefits out of these variants especially in water-scarce regions where they can save water during sowing of rice crops as these varieties are direct seeded rice. However, in the traditional rice cultivation, farmers use transplant method and huge quantity of irrigation water for growing rice in the fields.

Elaborating on these variants, Dr Ashok Kumar Singh, former Director, IARI told ETV Bharat, “Both variants, PUSA Basmati 1979 and Basmati 1985, have been developed after rigorous testing and hard work of scientists. We had to undergo at least 15 years of its evolution and 5 different stages for the whole process.”

To develop these varieties of Basmati rice, these went through over 5 stages from identifying the mutant, cross breeding, testing on different fields, and testing for herbicide tolerant. And the most important thing is that both the basmati are non-genetically modified herbicide tolerant variants.

As per ICAR-IARI, Direct Seeding Rice helps to reduce water usage by almost 33 percent of the total water requirement which enables it to be a sustainable choice, especially in water-scarce regions. Moreover, both basmati rice varieties are tolerant to imazethapyr 10 percent SL for DSR cultivation.

Talking about the benefits of these varieties, Singh said, “The advantages of these varieties are that there is less use of labour for transplanting of rice and emission of greenhouse gas, and methane under transplanted flooded conditions.”

These varieties are effective in revolutionizing weed control in DSR, thereby streamlining the cost of Basmati rice cultivation and reducing the labour-intensive processes associated with the weeding, Dr Singh informed.

Crop Cultivars:

As per Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, during the year 2024, a total of 27 crop cultivars in 10 different crops names, 7 in bread wheat, 3 in rice, 8 maize hybrids, 1 pearl millet hybrid, 2 chickpea cultivars, 1 pigeon pea hybrid, 3 mung bean varieties, 1 lentil variety, 2 double zero mustard varieties and 1 soybean variety have been released.

Basmati Rice:

Basmati rice varieties including Pusa Basmati 1718, Pusa Basmati 1692, Pusa Basmati 1509 and the ones with resistance to both bacterial blight and blast diseases namely, PB 1847, PB 1885, and PB 1886 contribute to about 90 percent of the 5.2 million tons of Basmati rice exports earning of Rs 48,389 crores from India in 2023-2024. During April to November 2024, the export earnings from our Basmati rice stands at Rs 31,488 crores.

Two short duration non-Basmati rice varieties names, Pusa 1824 and Pusa 2090 have been released, which can help provide sufficient time for after-harvest operations. Pusa RH 60 is a high-yielding, short-duration, aromatic rice hybrid with long slender grains, best suited for Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Pusa Narendra KN1 and Pusa CRD KN2 are improved Kalanamak varieties with better resistance and higher yield, recommended for Uttar Pradesh, as per ministry information.

Some popular Basmati varieties:

Pusa Basmati, 1121 Basmati Rice, 1509 Basmati Rice, Taraori Basmati, Sugandha Basmati, Ranbir Basmati, Dehraduni Basmati, Mahi Sugandha Basmati, and Sharbati Basmati.

Published Date: March 5, 2025