Hyderabad-based research organization, Indian Institute of Rice Research (ICAR-IIRR) has released four new rice varieties namely DRR Dhan 53, DRR Dhan 54, DRR Dhan 55 and DRR Dhan 56 recently.
Fine-grain rice varieties like Samba Mahsuri are usually affected due to a bacterial disease, Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae which in turn reduces yield of the crop. To curb this type of infections, scientists from ICAR have developed a novel durable bacterial blight resistant, DRR Dhan 53 which is of high-yielding, fine-grain rice variety that has four major bacterial resistant genes introgressed through marker assisted selection.
The variety has been released for cultivation in irrigated and bacterial blight endemic areas of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
Due to the dearth of water availability in most areas of the country, DRR Dhan 54 and DRR Dhan 55 were brought in place for cultivation under aerobic systems, under dry direct seeded rice. This variety has been released for water-limiting areas of Zone II (Haryana), III (Odisha, Bihar and Jharkand), VI (Gujarat) and VII (Telangana) while DRR Dhan 55 is suitable for cultivation in Zone III (Bihar) and Zone V (Chhattisgarh).
The two varieties, DRR Dhan 54 and DRR Dhan 55, have multiple pest and disease resistance for major insect pests and diseases such as leaf blast, neck blast, Gallmidge and rice thrips and moderate resistance to plant hoppers and stem borer.
The fourth variety, DRR Dhan 56 is a cross-breed developed from Huang-Hua-Zhan*2/Phalguna which is built under a collaborative project, ‘Green Super Rice (GSR) for the Resource-Poor of Africa and Asia- Phase III’ between ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad and International Rice Research Institute, Philippines. The rice variety is also resistant to leaf blast and false smut, moderately resistant to Bacterial leaf blight and tolerant to stem borer. DRR Dhan 56 has been released for cultivation in irrigated conditions of Punjab and Haryana.
Dr Raman Meenakshi Sundaram, Director, ICAR-IIRR expressed that these new rice varieties would stabilize rice production in the country and congratulated the team of scientists involved in the development and release.
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