Punjab has begun an experiment with two new paddy varieties that scientists say are high-yield and disease-resistant. The Punjab Agricultural University developed the new varieties,floated them in the market and found the response mixed,with farmers warming up to one variety and largely ignoring the other. The university also offered two new varieties of basmati,neither of which found too many takers. The paddy varieties are called PR121 and PR122,and the university launched 4,000 quintals of either variety. PR122 clocked sales of 2,189 quintals at kisan melas organised in Ludhiana,Faridkot,Gurdaspur and Patiala. Of PR121,only 504 quintals could be sold. The basmati varieties are Punjab Basmati 3 and PUSA Punjab Basmati 1509,of which the university launched 1,000 quintals,with the former accounting for the larger share. Only 99.24 quintals of Punjab Basmati 3 has been sold,and very little of PUSA Punjab Basmati 1509,which was released only on a trial basis. At the Ludhiana kisan mela,the largest,PR121 saw 1,480 quintals sold in Ludhiana,and PR122 only 280 quintals. Of the basmati varieties,only 48 quintals of Punjab Basmati 3 was sold while the 1509 varietys sales were at a bare minimum,university authorities said. PR122s lure is that it can be sown 10 days later than other varieties must. Its yield too is higher than PR121s. On research fields,each acre yielded 31.5 quintals against PR121s 30.5 quintals. A yield of 31.5 quintals per acre on a research farm definitely promises more than 40 quintals per acre on our fields. This seem a better deal, says a farmer at the Ludhiana kisan mela. The average yield of PR121 is 30.5 quintals per acre. Previous varieties in research fields had yielded up to 29 quintals per acre,so this one yields higher than that, says Dr S S Gosal,director of research at the university. PR122 yields an average 31.5 quintals per acre. It is disease-resistant and much more. Though its yield is lower than PR121s,PR122 too is disease-resistant,Gosal says. This variety resists attacks from all 10 types of bacterial blight pathogen prevalent in Punjab state. Dr H S Randhawa,director (seeds) at the university,says PR122 is outselling PR121 at all melas. In the Ludhiana mela alone,the sales from these seeds came to Rs 2.67 crore. Packs of the paddy seeds range from 1 to 8 kg while the basmati seeds come only in 1 kg bag and 500 g packs,Gosal says. We are encouraging farmers to buy small packs and multiply them in their fields, he says. Ours is a demand-driven research and we have come up with these four new,high-yield and disease-resistant varieties of rice and we are recommending that farmers sow them only in the coming season for best results. Of the new basmati varieties,Punjab Basmati 3 is an improved version of the traditional,tall variety Basmati 386 in terms of disease resistance and height,Dr Gosal says. It is shorter than Basmati 386 by about 50 cm. It resists all the 10 prevalent types of bacterial blight pathogen,he says,adding it has extra-long,slender and translucent grains with excellent cooking and eating quality characteristics,and is strongly scented. Its average yield is 16 quintals per acre,which is about 30 per cent higher than Basmati 386s yield. The biggest advantage,he says,is that it can capture the European market. The other basmati variety,Pusa Punjab Basmati 1509 which was released on an ad hoc basis,gives an average yield is 15.7 quintals per acre. Gosal says the variety will be suitable for multiple cropping systems,which will result in higher returns. Maize and guar It was after a long time that the agriculture university did research on guar varieties. Punjab farmers took to growing guar last year after a gap of more than a decade. More than 40,000 acres were sown with guar in Malwa. HG 365 is a new variety of guar and PMH 7 is of maize, Gosal says. HG 365 is an early maturing variety. It takes about 105 days to mature. The average yield is 5.4 quintals per acre. PMH 7 is a short-duration hybrid of maize and is suitable for planting in spring. Gosal says the variety matures in 115 days and its average yield is 30 quintals per acre. The Punjab government has already suggested maize as a possible crop for diversification from paddy. The PAU has released the new variety hoping to guide farmers if they want to go for the switch to maize. The variety was not,however,released in the melas as the sowing season is at the end of July; it would have been too early to sell those seeds now.
