Manthan TopicSowing prosperity: Boosting agricultural

productivity

Skills Shortage Boosting rice productivity with the help of

Biotechnology

Team DetailsAnkit Singh, Supratim Chaudhuri, Aritra Roy Choudhury, Aparajita Chakraborty & Tuhin Kr. Dasgupta

Kalinga Institute Of Industrial Technology

RICE IS ONE OF THE MAJOR STAPLE FOOD OF THE INDIAN POPULATION

INDIA IS ONE OF THE LEADING RICE PRODUCING COUNTRIES EVEN THE HIGHEST CONSUMER OF THE SAME

A. Production: About 120,620,000 metric tons of rice is being

produced per year approximately in India.

(2011 RECORD)

A. B. Consumption: About 82,602,265 metric tons of rice is being

consumed per year approximately by the whole

population of India. (2011 RECORD)

C. Export: About 2,131,270 tons of rice being exported per year

which gives a total of 10,000 crore rupees to India.

HAS THE MAIN STAPLE FOOD HAVING 100% EFFICIENCY OF

PRODUCTION??

There is approximately 4880 crores of rupees of losses

due to various pests as stated above.

There is about 20% of loss of yield due to various

diseases.

The most common diseases affecting rice plants in India

are-

1) Rice blast &

2) Bacterial Blight.

From the above the data we can conclude that there is a high

range of yield loss in India.

One of the main reason of this loss is the moist tropical environment

of India.

Rice being a Kharif crop in north India, is generally grown in the

monsoon.

In north India, the monsoon comes during the period of June-

September during the southeast monsoon.

THE ISSUE AT HAND

The major rice producing states are: West Bengal, Punjab, Haryana,

Assam, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, etc.

The major rice producing states are susceptible to one of the major rice

disease, i.e., Bacterial Blight. The data suggests that there is

approximately 6-60% loss in yield due to this disease.

For example, the rice variety Pusa Basmati is cultivated in the Haryana

region. There is about 31-45% yield loss per year.

States effected by

Bacterial Blight

Major rice producing states of India: States majorly effected by Bacterial Blight in India:

ABOUT THE THREAT

Bacterial leaf blight (BLB) is caused by Xanthomonas oryzae pv. Oryzae.

Symptoms:

i) Water-soaked to yellowish stripes on leaf blades or starting at leaf tips then later increase in length

and width with a wavy margin.

ii) Appearance of bacterial ooze that looks like a milky or opaque dewdrop on young lesions early in the

morning.

iii) Lesions turn yellow to white as the disease advances and later become grayish

iv) Leaves wilt and roll up and become grayish green to yellow and later the plant wilts completely.

v) Green water-soaked layer along the cut portion or leaf tip of leaves as early symptom.

vi) The pathogen causes typical vascular wilt in seedlings called kresek, and develops as leaf blight at

later stages of crop growth.

CAUSE OF THE DISEASE:

i) The presence of weeds around the field, the rice stubbles, and ratoons of infected plants sustains

survival of the disease. They become sources of initial inoculum. Likewise, the bacteria in the rice paddy

and irrigation canals encourage new infection on leaves.

ii) Warm temperature (25-30° C), high humidity, rain and deep water favor the disease. Wetland areas

also encourage the presence of the disease. Severe winds, which cause wounds, and over fertilization are

suitable factors for the development of the disease.

COPING UP WITH THE THREAT

CONVENTIONAL METHOD:

The most widely used conventional method is the use of pesticide.This much use of pesticides are causing lots of environmental as wellAs health hazards.

WHAT’S NEXT??There can be innovative as well as hazardless solutions for minimizing the disease threat. The different types of remedies can be:

1) Genetic modification2) Interspecific hybridization3) RNA silencing

PARAMETERS USED FOR ESTIMATING YIELD LOSS:Incidence and severity are the two quantitative parameters that are commonly assessed in epidemiological studies on any disease. Disease incidence is the proportion of visible infected plant units, and is usually expressed as a percentage of the total population. Disease severity is the proportion of tissue infected by disease and showing symptoms, and is expressed as a percentage of total tissue area. One method widely used by plant breeders and pathologists in tropical Asia is the scale in the standard evaluation system for rice. With the decimal scale for BLB, scores range from 0 to 9, and six grades of disease incidence or severity are recognized for field assessment as follows: 0 = no BLB; 1 = less than 1%; 3 = 1–5%; 5 = 6–25%; 7 = 26–50%; and 9 = 51–100% leaf area damaged. The decimal scale is widely used to determine the disease severity, but the disease prevalence over a rice-growing district is usually ignored.

GENETIC MODIFICATION

Incorporating the disease resistant gene into the plant genome:The first gene that was found to be resistant against this disease is Xa21.

The gene of interest(Xa21) is

isolated from genome

The gene of interest is incorporated in a plant

expression vector.

The vector is transferred in the plant

by a carrier.

Callus formation & selection

Plant regeneration

Expression level assays

Pyramiding the genes of interest in the plant

genome:

The incorporation of the single gene like Xa21 in the plant genome

can make the plant variety tolerant to the disease ,i.e., Bacterial

Blight.

This can also result in the loss of tolerance after few days due to

some mutation in the gene.

Hence there are more number of other genes like Xa1, Xa2, Xa5,

Xa7, Xa10, Xa11,etc which are tolerant to the disease.

If more than one gene is being incorporated into the plant variety,

then there is a high probability that the plant will be tolerant to

blight for a longer period of time. As there are more number of

genes, the genes that will lose its viability can be shadowed by the

work of the other genes.

INTERSPECIFIC HYBRIDISATION

Cross between Oryza sativa & Oryza glaberrima produces a blight resistant rice variety

O. Sativa X O. glaberrima

F1

BC1F1

BC2F1

BC2F2

Selection of desirable lines continues till homozygosity (BC2F6)

.

Proposed scheme to obtain fertile lines from interspecific cross between O.sativa and O.globerrima.

Crosses with different accessories, identify barriers to incompatibility &

methods to overcome them.

Back cross with O. sativa embryos culture is needed.

Anther culture

Marker aided elimination of plants with major sterility loci. Back cross

with O. sativa

Anther culture

Doubled haploids (homozygous lives)

Selection of desirable lines

Sexual

incompatibility low

seed set

Sterility

Partial sterility

Budget items Amount requested in Rs

1st Year 2nd Year 3rd Year

Research Scholar – One [Rs.12,000 + 20% HRA=

Rs. 14,400/-]1,72,800/- 1,72,800/- 1,72,800/-

ContingencyChemical

Glassware

Maintenance

Travel

4,00, 000/-

2,00, 000/-

50, 000/-

50, 000/-

3,00, 000/-

NIL

50, 000/-

50, 000/-

2,00, 000/-

NIL

50, 000/-

50, 000/-

Equipment 10,00,000/- NIL NIL

Total 18,72,800/- 5,72,800/- 4,72,800/-

GRAND TOTAL for THREE YEARS Rs. 29,18,400 - (Rupees twenty-nine lakhs eighteen thousand four

hundred only)

APPROXIMATE EXPENDITURE FOR

RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT

The financial supports can be expected from CSIR, DBT, DST & UGC (Govt. of India)

ADVANTAGES DRAWBACKS

A. The use of pesticides can be minimized. This can minimizethe expenditure of the farmers.

B. There would be increase in yield upto 20- 25% of rice.

C. As mentioned in the previous slides, Pusa Basmati(scented rice) is being a export quality rice & there is about31-45% loss due to bacterial blight. This brings about 10000crore rupees to Indian government. If there is significantdepletion in the yield loss & if the whole quantity ofincreased yield is being exported, then there would be anincrement of about 20-25% in the export of rice.

D. In case of interspecific hybridization as we are not usingany bacterial gene it has no threat of long term herm tohuman health and environment.

E. The need of the growing population can also be easilyfulfilled by implementing the remedies. Even there isshortage of land for cultivation. We can easily cut short theyield loss & take benefit out of it.

A. In case of genetic modification, we are not aware of theconsequences in the population in long term consumption.Even this is the matter of concern in case of RNA silencing.Both the gene & RNA can undergo mutations very easily. We arenot sure of any type of such consequences in the future aspects.

B. In case of interspecific hybridization, the resistant varietieswill only be expressive during F1 generation only. Farmers needto purchase the seeds again & again to minimize the threat ofBacterial blight.

But overall, the remedies will surely cut-short the expenditure of the farmers, bring money to the government, reduce the yield loss & fulfill the needs of the growing population.

http://www.tropicalmedicinecentre.com/downloads/Oryza%20glaberrima.pdf

https://www.integratedbreeding.net/news/unlocking-breeding-potential-wild-rice-species-oryza-barthii

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S073497500900113X

http://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=cvKSmAOOFW8C&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=interspecific+hybridizatio

n+between+oryza+sativa+and+oryza+barthii+to+prevent+bacterial+blight+of+rice&ots=hGyyEp3eNM&sig=wkwJI

Nj50Pb08yyqNs77hM0fj6I#v=onepage&q&f=false

http://www.fao.org/docrep/003/x6905e/x6905e04.htm

http://www.genethik.de/rice.htm

http://irri.org/

References