1. Manthan Topic
Sowing prosperity: Boosting agricultural
productivity
Skills Shortage
Boosting rice productivity with the help of
Biotechnology
Team Details
Ankit Singh, Supratim Chaudhuri, Aritra Roy Choudhury, Aparajita Chakraborty & Tuhin Kr. Dasgupta
Kalinga Institute Of Industrial Technology
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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:
5. 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.
6. 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 well
As 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 modification
2) Interspecific hybridization
3) 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.
7. 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.
8. 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
9.
10. 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/-
Contingency
Chemical
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)
11. ADVANTAGES DRAWBACKS
A. The use of pesticides can be minimized. This can minimize
the 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 about
31-45% loss due to bacterial blight. This brings about 10000
crore rupees to Indian government. If there is significant
depletion in the yield loss & if the whole quantity of
increased yield is being exported, then there would be an
increment of about 20-25% in the export of rice.
D. In case of interspecific hybridization as we are not using
any bacterial gene it has no threat of long term herm to
human health and environment.
E. The need of the growing population can also be easily
fulfilled by implementing the remedies. Even there is
shortage of land for cultivation. We can easily cut short the
yield loss & take benefit out of it.
A. In case of genetic modification, we are not aware of the
consequences 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 are
not sure of any type of such consequences in the future aspects.
B. In case of interspecific hybridization, the resistant varieties
will only be expressive during F1 generation only. Farmers need
to purchase the seeds again & again to minimize the threat of
Bacterial 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.
