Rice to the challenge

The debate on the drought has been interesting. The point has been squarely made that Indian water management is waiting for reform. Delhi...

The debate on the drought has been interesting. The point has been squarely made that Indian water management is waiting for reform. Delhi-based think tanks, of course, do not face the issue that drinking water is a life source and cannot be left to the market alone. Dual markets are difficult to work, because water literally leaks to those who don8217;t deserve it in such a system. A form of decentralised organisation was suggested in a recent World Bank meeting, but we are still not clear of its details.

Meanwhile our crack on droughts, Bisleri and Maria Antoinette, was taken seriously and repeated and we were also told that Mckinsey has the answer to all our rural problems. Also that Singapore and Israel have less water available than India, so our plea for an interbasin transfer should give way to markets. We believe both are necessary. Singapore, in fact, gets most of its water from Malaysia through a mega scheme and its own water availability is less than a tenth of its consumption. It is only in India that, instead of water development schemes, you get lectures.

With all the cynicism, is anything positive also happening? There is the story on rice. Rice is now the fastest growing cereal and the spectacular growth of wheat has been slower. Science played a big role in rice. The high yielders are well known. But our scientists did some of the best work in the world on high yielders in the extra-superior long varieties. Basmati is a great rice, but its yields are low. But we produced the parmal, which was almost as good and with high yields.

When in 1989 the government was planning a freer policy for import of seeds, Indian agricultural science demanded a level playing field. The present Indian Council of Agricultural Research ICAR chief in those days used to plan agscience. He succeeded in getting mission projects in selected crops to allow the ICAR work on cutting edge seeds with defined milestones. One of them was hybrid paddy. China had succeeded in developing hybrid paddy.

Philippines had a small programme based on help from the International Rice Research Institute at Los Banos. India was to be the next. A team was set up under Dr E.S. Siddiqui.

Siddiqui quickly set up a network with two lead centres at Kapurthala in the north and Coimbatore in the south. He coordinated the mission from Hyderabad and set up Strategic Research Centres at Hyderabad, Cuttack and Delhi.

Associate research centres were set up at Mandya, Maruteru, Karnal, Pantnagar, Faizabad, Chinsurah and Karjat. By 1993, the results were coming in. DRRH 1 could produce 8.1 tonnes of paddy suited for the rice granaries in Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. CNHR 3 could do the same for boro rice in Bengal. These seeds for the deltas took four months each. In 110 days, MGR 1 produced 6 tonnes for the kuruvai crop in Tamil Nadu and KRH 1 in the canal areas of Karnataka, but KRH 4 produced 8.2 tonnes in the irrigated areas of the Kaveri in Karnataka. Under more difficult conditions APHR 1 and APHR 2 produced 7.1 to 7.5 tonnes in Telangana and Rayalaseema regions in Andhra. In any country, Siddiqui and his women and men would have been heroes. A 8220;grateful nation8221; remembered him only muchlater. The rest is history.

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By 1995, the seed was released. It can go up to 2 million hectares, although actual progress is slower. Hybrid paddy made other institutional milestones. In 1995-8217;96, apart from the state seed corporations, private seed companies were also involved, both in the research and seed multiplication business. Mahyco, Eid Parry, Spic and Levers were to be followed by others. The area under hybrids is still not so widespread that a fellow like me can see it in his village rounds. A couple of times I made a special effort to track down kisans and discovered that they are demanding business. They need more water much more and at the right time. They needs pesticides and nutrients.

This is close to a super rice but is not yet genetically engineered. Since we are short of water, we will need biotechnology in the future. Our experts want crops which grow more with less. But all in good time. One farmer I met complained that his crop had failed and that he wanted his money back. The other two complained of the investment but had obviously made a lot of money. Our extension agencies have not learnt the trick of promotion with standard setting. Competition can only work in a level playing field.

All in all, we need many more hybrid paddy stories. In a lecture tour in Canada, the agricultural science and promotion agencies were overjoyed at the story that India was winding up its pulses research. I told them that things were getting bad with state-sponsored research all over the world, but it wasn8217;t so bad that India would stop priority research. The Canadian prairies want to diversify away from wheat and India is a sink for oilseeds and pulses. I told them that imports would continue, but so would our own efforts. I hope I was right. Sometimes, when I read newspapers, I wonder.