ZAHID BAIG

LAHORE: The recently constituted Research & Development (R&D) Board of Rice has recommended that all future ‘Basmati’ research should be focused on development of varieties having average grain length of more than 8.00mm with good taste, aroma and yield potential of 60-70 maunds per acre with acceptable milling recovery.

The recommendation was floated at the 1st ever meeting of the Board held the other day at the Kala Shah Kaku Rice Research Institute (KKRI) with Dr Muhammad Yusuf, National Coordinator (Cereal), Pakistan Agricultural Research Council Islamabad in the chair.

Others who attended the meeting were Shahzad Ali Malik, Guard Agri Research & Services (Pvt) Ltd, Dr Fahad Rasul, Assistant Professor, Department of Agronomy, Univ. of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Sarfraz Khan of the Kissan Board, Ch Hamid Malhi, President Basmati Growers Association, Masood Akhtar Malik and Sohial Asghar (Growers), Rice Exporters Association of Pakistan’s representatives Shahjahan Malik and Kashif-ur-Rehman and Dr Muhammad Ishfaq, Agri Chemist, representative of Director, Institute of soil and environmental Science, Faisalabad.

Sources told Business Recorder here Wednesday that Shahzad Malik during the discussion suggested that yard stick of average grain length of Basmati varieties should be above 8.0 mm as per demand of International market. He said success of any variety is mainly determined by three factors i.e. farmer acceptance, miller acceptance & International acceptance.

Director Rice Research Institute Dr Muhammad Akhtar in response said that research institute had advance Basmati rice lines having AGL of 8.00 to 9.00 mm.

Ch Hamid Malhi stressed the need for increasing horizon of Rice Research Institute, taking care of all kinds of issues including MR levels and mechanization of rice. He also suggested changing the name of newly approved rice variety “Punjab Basmati” as India already had approved one of the Basmati varieties with the same name. The house agreed with the proposal.

He also stressed the need to increase the collaboration with International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines and China for importing rice germplasm and hybrid technology.

The Director Rice explained that direct seeded rice (DSR) is a successful technology to overcome the burning issue of labour and water shortage. However, the only issue in the success of DSR is the non-availability of chemical control of weeds specifically Madhana grass, Bansi grass and Kallar grass. New chemistries, for the control of these weeds, are being tested and evaluated through private sector collaboration, he added.

On mechanization of rice, Shahzad Malik claimed that rice transplanters were not cost effective in our situation. Hamid Malhi stressed the need to do more work on DSR and mechanization.

The participants recommended for more efforts on development of special varieties having low tillering with high yield potential suitable for direct seeding method. It was further suggested to enhance endeavours to control incidence of hopper attacks in traditional areas as well as blast incidence in non-traditional rice growing areas through management and resistant varieties. It was suggested to chalk out a plan to collect paddy/rice samples for MRL detection and develop technologies to cope malnutrition through Zinc and Iron fortification in rice.

The meeting suggested strengthening Agricultural Engineering section of Rice Research Institute besides making efforts to further promote rice combine harvesters for harvesting rice crop by giving subsidy, and strict imposition of ban on using wheat combine harvester for rice harvesting. It was also agreed for making efforts for further refinement and dissemination of resource saving and environment friendly rice production technologies such as Direct Seeding of Rice (DSR), the recommendations concluded.