Chennai: Even though M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) had a breakthrough in identifying nine nutritional landraces in rice from the tribal districts of Odisha and Kerala, bringing them into cultivable varieties is time consuming owing to many challenges, say experts who are now into their anticipatory research to overcome the challenges.
The zinc and iron concentration in these rice varieties is almost three times more than that of the conventional varieties, thus capable of tackling micro nutritional deficiency, which affects half the world population.
While identifying the landraces and screening for the maximum zinc and iron content took three Rabi seasons - to eliminate variability in soil types, incorporating these traits into high yielding varieties would take much longer, said Rajalakshmi Swaminathan, Principal Coordinator for Biotechnology, MSSRF.
These landraces have different agronomic parameters like long duration, less yield and hence require more resources and prefer specific ecotypes. "Traditional varieties grow in specific soil and climate conditions, nurtured by locals. Their characteristics have to be understood before taking steps to improvise the yield," she added.
The larger question remains if the variety could feed the growing population, considering the yield crunch. "While the normal rice variety takes 120 days to harvest, such indigenous varieties take between five and nine months. We cannot expect good quantity either," she said.
These varieties will be crossed with 4-5 local high yielding rice varieties and would be screened for nutrient content in the progeny. They cannot be immediately cultivated in other localities as properties like seed quality, resistance to pests and climate need to be studied, said Dr G.N. Hariharan, director, biotechnology of MSSRF.
Reviving indigenous varieties makes it environment sustainable and prevents them from going extinct. "It is a way of retaining more races and varieties. If there is no commercial purpose, people do not use it. It would slowly start dying out," he added.
This is a non-transgenic approach for biofortifying rice - scientists from MSSRF are working on this - to develop micro-nutrient rich rice. Biofortification is an approach that is being increasingly recognized world over as an important means to address malnutrition, he said.
