Ever heard of rice exclusively for diabetic patientsIJ If not, the Indira Gandhi Agricultural University (IGAU) has something special for such patients.
A local rice form named Chapti Gurmatiya containing low Glycerine Index is being developed for the consumption.
As of now, a group of scientists are testing the developed rice on a mice to check the response. “This low Glycerine Index rice variety was part of Chhattisgarh residents before the Green Revolution Era. It was popularly grown and consumed here. We thought of working on it to provide a healthy food material again,” said Professor Girish Chandel, Principal Scientist, Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Department of IGAU.
“We hope to release the variety for Type 2 Diabetic patients by the year-end since the mice feeding experiment is giving encouraging results,” he added.
Sources maintained none of the State agricultural universities across the nation have focussed on the particular variety for the health-conscious purpose.
Chandel said an Australian Machine replicating the human intestine is used to for the particular rice-experimentation.
Highlighting the role of the foreign procured machine, Vinay Premi, a Doctorate Research Scholar assisting Chandel in the project said, “We cook the rice and put it in the machine with artificial enzymes to observe the impact on human-like gut.”
However, asked about the release of the variety for the public, Premi felt it will take at least two to three years more for the release.
The project was started in 2012 and a year back, it gained momentum, Chandel said, adding, it differs from the commercial brand rice sold for diabetic patients.
“Corporates sell ground rice which is unpolished. But, we are developing the rice into the polished or white rice form preferred by majority of the population,” mentioned the Principal Scientist.
In the upcoming projects after the release of this rice, the university has plans of transferring the characters of Chapti Gurmatiya into commercial rice varieties including Basmati, HMT and Sarna.
“We want people to get the biological benefits in the other rice varieties as well,” said Vinay Premi.
Similarly, in March this year the scientists at IGAU, Raipur had developed a new rice variety ‘Indira Aerobic-1’.
The new variety is immune to many of the crop diseases.The average production of the new variety is 40 to 45 quintal per hectare.
It was in 2014-15, the IGAU had decided to develop new varieties of rice from 23250 varieties of rice germplasm conserved in the university.
IGAU Vice-Chancellor Dr S K Patil had directed the Head of Genetics and Plant Breeding Department to prepare a comprehensive action plan for this, officials said.
The testing of 17000 germplasm out of total germplasm available with the university was completed. The Agronomy Department was asked to start test production of the first 100 varieties of these so that varieties yielding good production could be identified and their seeds can be produced.
Dr Patil had also directed the concerned officers for compiling the research work of agriculture scientist Dr HR Richhariya who had collected and conserved germplasm of rare varieties of paddy. The research work of Dr Richhariya on paddy should be preserved as heritage.
He had further stated that the Murra and Poha industry is growing rapidly in the State. The Kranti variety of paddy developed by IGAU is considered best for Poha.
Dr Patil had stated that better variety should be developed from ‘Kranti’ seeds for production of Poha.
He had also directed the officers to develop new varieties for preparation of Murra and Poha from Dokra-Dokri variety.
Moreover, it may be recalled that Chhattisgarh is one of the five states in the country where cultivation of hybrid rice is gaining popularity.
From the initial level of 10,000 hectares in 1995, area under hybrid rice reached one million hectare in 2006 in the country.
The cultivation of hybrid rice has picked up during the last nine years, mainly because of increasing popularity of hybrid rice in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and area under hybrid rice has exceeded to 2.5 million hectares during 2014, which is about 5.6% of the total rice area in the country.
However, efforts are being made to promote cultivation of hybrid rice through various crop development programmes such as National Food Security Mission (NFSM), bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI) and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY).
The Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and Directorate of Rice Research (DRR) have jointly developed bacterial blight resistant variety ‘Improved Samba Mahsuri’ which variety was notified and released for cultivation in 2008.
The variety has so far spread to an area of 90,000 ha in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.