Srinagar, Jan 2: The Valley which once produced over two hundred indigenous rice varieties has lost most of them prompting the scientists to look for ways to make some of the existing land races survive. 
 The scientists at SK University of Agriculture Sciences and Technology said farmers did not prefer land races because they yielded low crops and were diseases-prone. “Presently the farmers have such rice seeds available which yield exceptionally good crop,” they said, adding that to attract the farmers towards the land races, “it is necessary to make them disease proof and increase their productivity.”
 To preserve the traditional land races the SKUAST is planning to initiate a programme wherein the university would stress on the cultivation of the traditional varieties of rice to ensure their survival. 
 Programmes to revive the cultivation of the land races:
 The SKUAST is initiating a programme to increase the cultivation of the land races. It is stressing on the farmers to come forward for increasing the cultivation of Mushkabudji and Kamad which are the only traditional rice varieties cultivated by the farmers.
 “We are trying to purify its seed and to increase its resistance to disease so that it is cultivated in the Valley in the same manner as it was cultivated some decades ago,” they said.
 “This time both at the national level and international level the land races are being preserved in the gene banks but unfortunately we do not have any gene bank here. However we have a Research Centre at Khadwani Islamabad called as Regional Rice Research Station, where they have maintained many land races. They have introduced a maintenance programme where they plant a small quantity of these land races every year to preserve these races.,” they said.
 They said: “Like in Delhi and Shimla we should have a long term and short term storage where in seeds of the land could be preserved,” they added.
 The scientists said that they were also checking these land races for some such characteristics which were not available in the existing varieties so as to incorporate the same in the present varieties.
 “Now the university is trying for the revival of certain races by using the molecular technique to study if these races possess certain qualities that are not present in the current varieties. This way if we have some additional parameters in our land races we can use them,” they said.
 “Also we are working on and trying to find out if certain varieties of these land races are same and are only given the different names by the people,” they said.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 2 Jan 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 2 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 3 Jan 2010 00:00:00 IST