By: Dr. Ashutosh Roy
The Regional Agricultural Research Station, Diphu is the only agricultural research station of Assam Agricultural University in the Hills Zone of Assam.The RARS, Diphu is benefiting the people of the three hills District of Assam Viz, Karbi Anglong, West Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao in many different aspects.Various efforts have been made on zonal basis to enhance production and productivity of different agronomic and horticultural crops. Recently, two organic Sali rice varieties “LANGPI’ and ‘DIYUNG’ and one direct seeded ahu rice variety ‘HACCHA’ notified in 88th meeting of Central Sub-Committee on Crop Standards, Notification and Release of Varieties for Agricultural Crops held on 17th June, 2022 under the Chairmanship of Dr. T.R. Sharma, Deputy Director Central (Crop Sciences), lndian Council of Agricultural Research (lCARJ, New Delhi. And moreover, these varieties were notified in the Gazette of India 31st August 2022(CG-DL-E-31082022-238490) New Delhi.
Rice is the most important crop of Assam covering an area of 2.54 m ha out of total 4.16 m ha gross cropped area.Among the three overlapping seasons where rice is grown, Ahu rice generally grown in the month of March-April and harvest during June/July and is predominantly direct seeded under rain-fed upland ecosystem. The yield of local cultivars of ahu rice is less than 1.0t/ha. The productivity of ahu rice is lowest among all the rice cultures due to a number of problems. Direct seeded Ahu rice is cultivated by poor and disadvantaged farmers of Assam. A number of high yielding modern semi dwarf rice varieties were identified and recommended for direct seeded upland ahu rice ecosystem. But none of theses varieties has got acceptance among the farmers.
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These varieties were developed by a team of scientist leaded by Dr Ashutosh Roy, Ex Chief Scientist of Regional Agricultural Research Station, AAU, Diphu and now at present he is working as Principal Scientist (Plant Breeding), Sugarcane Research Station, Assam Agricultural University. His work in the hill regions of Assam has led to the development of a number of varieties of rice, sesame and chilli. Few of these varieties have been released and notified in the Gazette of India during 2017 and 2020. The focus of the development of the rice varieties viz., Inglongkiri, Rongkhang and Dehangi have been their suitability to the conditions of the jhum land in the Hills Zone of Assam. One high yielding sesame variety ‘AST-1’ (black seeded) also released and notified under his leadership.
A brief description of the newly released varieties are as follows:
Haccha variety is ideally suited to the upland ‘ahu’ rice ecosystem Haccha is a short duration direct seeded upland rice variety as it’ showed advantage in yield and maturity duration over best recommended variety. The ahu rice variety ’Haccha showed 30.0% and 12.2% yield advantage over National Check variety (Vandana) and Zonal check varieties during 2016 in the co-ordinated trial.The variety is non lodging, semi dwarf, deep green leaves, well exerted panicle with desire degree of seed dormancy to escape pre and post harvest sprouting, high degree of resistance against blast and moderately resistance to stem borer and leaf folder. Further good appearance of the grain and white kernel colour along with desirable traits viz., High milling (73%) and HRR (69%)which assist in easy marketability of the variety.
The newly developed normal Sali rice variety ‘LANGPI’ is suitable for organic situation of the state and it is the first organic rice variety notified and released for the state. The variety ‘Langpi’ has shown consistent performance over years and the locations under different trials i.e. Station trials, MLTs, OFTs and AICRP trial and with an average yield of 5895 kg/ha. The variety ‘Langpi’ showed high degree of resistance against blast and sheath blight and moderately resistance to gundhi bug, stem borer and leaf folder under normal field situation. The variety ’Langpi’ exhibited good appearance of grain along with desirable traits viz., High milling (71.3%) and HRR (69.4%) which assist in easy marketability.The variety is non shattering, non-lodging, semi tall, deep green leaves well exerted panicle and at par with Mahsuri in maturity duration i.e. 140-145 days. Consumers prefer this variety for its panicle length and number of grains per panicle along with white kernel colour .
DIYUNG is a semi-glutinous sali rice variety suitable for organic situation of Assam. It is the first high yielding chakua rice variety developed from Assam Agricultural University. The variety ’ showed advantage of yield and maturity duration over the check varieties in Station trials, MLTs, OFTs, and AICRP trials. The variety ’Diyung exhibited yield advantages over national check and zonal check varieties during testing in kharif 2018 in the co-ordinated trial. The variety showed high degree of resistance against Blast and Sheath Blight and showed moderately resistant to Stem borer, Gundhi bug and Leaf folder under organic sali paddy situation. Amylose content of the variety is 7.55% which indicates that the proposed variety is as good as local chakua rice cultivar Malbhog (7.98%). The consumers preferred the variety due to good appearance of the grain along with desirable value added products viz., flatten rice, pop rice,puff rice, poitabhat, korkorabhat, sandhaguri, etc. (The author is the Principal Scientist, Sugarcane Research station, AAU)
