New paddy varities in making to reduce urea use by 50%: IRRI scientist

New paddy varieties being developed by IRRI to reduce urea usage by 50%, improving soil and human health.

HYDERABAD

Use of urea in cultivation of paddy in the coming years is expected to come down by almost 50% as new varieties of paddy - being developed with half of the urea being used now - without impacting the yield would become available, said Ajay Kohli, Deputy Director General (Research) of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines.

Speaking at a seminar on “Rice Research for Better Future” organised by Professor Jayashankar Telangana Agricultural University (PJTAU) in Hyderabad on Tuesday (March 4, 2024), he said intense research was in progress in developing new paddy varieties that would consume very less urea, the nitrogen-rich fertilizer, without affecting the yield.

Such varieties would also improve soil health as also that of human health as the fertilizer residue both in soil and in the grain was harming humans, he said adding that IR-8 and IR-64 varieties developed IRRI were very popular in the Asian continent including in India. Such high-yielding varieties had helped countries such as India to achieve food security by scaling up production largely.

Professor of Practice at PJTAU Samarendu Mohanty, a world food prize award winner, said there was a need to encourage paddy cultivation to meet the needs of the South-East Asian countries as it would also help improve farmers’ income. Establishment of modern technology rice mills for quality production of rice would also help improve farmers’ income, he felt.

Director of Indian Rice Research Institute, Meenakshi Sundaram, Director (Research) of PJTAU Balaram and others also spoke. Later, Secretary (Agriculture) M. Raghunandan Rao felicitated Dr. Kohli in the presence of Dr. Mohanty, Vice Chancellor Aldas Janaiah and others.