HYDERABAD: R Jagadeeshwar, Director of Research, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University (PJTSAU), has revealed that gene-editing in developing and improving maize and paddy crop varieties was being pursued by the university, and that BT gene integration of cotton varieties was also being done. The Centre has given permission for developing genetically-modified varieties in some crops, and it will soon be taken up by the university, he said.
On Friday, he presented the eight new varieties of crops developed by the university, which were approved and released for cultivation in different States by the Central Variety Release Committee (CVRC). Seven more varieties were accepted for release by the State Variety Release Committee (SVRC). The new varieties released included different seed varieties of paddy, fodder bajra, sesame and black gram.
Since 2014, PJTSAU has released a total of 61 crop varieties, which include 26 rice varieties, two maize, five sorghum, eight red gram, three green gram, one black gram, one groundnut, three sesame, one soybean, one castor, one cotton, one fodder maize, one bajra, one fodder cowpea and a hedge lucerne crop variety.
Cultivation in 40L acres
Observing that 320 rice varieties were being used by farmers in the State, Jagadeeshwar said: “Though the extent of land particular to various crop varieties released by PJTSAU was not known as it was not yet being recorded in the crop booking, moving forward, it will be done.”
He, however, estimated that the university’s own rice varieties were being cultivated in 30-40 lakh acres across the State. He said that the paddy varieties released by the university have been widely in use in Karnataka, Puducherry, West Bengal, Odisha and Karnataka.
Some of the rice varieties released on Friday are of short duration, high yielding, resistant to various diseases and also have a high Head Recovery Rate (give more than 65 kg rice per quintal of paddy after milling). An aromatic short bold rice variety called RNR 15459 was also released. To ensure self-sufficiency in fodder production, the university has also released two fodder bajra varieties, which can yield green fodder between 40 and 86 kg per hectare, dry fodder between 8.7 kg and 17.4 kg, and contains high acid detergent fibre, crude protein content, neutral detergent fibre, and IVDMD- in addition to yielding 11 kg bajra seed per hectare.
Speaking on the occasion, PJTSAU vice-chancellor and Commissioner of Agriculture M Raghunandan Rao said that development of crop varieties was a continuous process taking place in the university and its allied research institutes, which was being done keeping in mind the challenges which were arising due to climate change.