IARI Basmati Varieties

October 3, 2022

The IARI has organized Kisan Sampark Yatra from September 27 to 29 this year to get feedback on the 3 new varieties of IARI Basmati varieties.

Key facts

The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) sought feedback on the 3 new varieties of Basmati rice from farmers in the rice cultivating regions of Punjab and Haryana.
The three newly developed disease resistant varieties are Pusa Basmati 1847, Pusa Basmati 1885 and Pusa Basmati 1886.
They are highly resistant to bacterial blight and blast diseases. This has been achieved with the help of molecular marker assisted breeding method or MAB. In this method, genetic manipulations are done at the DNA molecular level to breed plant varieties with desired traits.
Pusa Basmati 1847 is an improved version of the Pusa Basmati 1509, the popular Basmati variety. The disease resistant trait was developed through the introduction of 2 genes, xa13 and Xa21 (for bacterial blight resistance), and 2 other genes, Pi54 and Pi2 (for blast resistance).
It is a semi-dwarf Basmati variety that matures early with an average yield of 5.7 tonnes/ hectare.
Pusa Basmati 1885 is an improvement on Pusa Basmati 1121. This variety too has bacterial blight and blast disease resistance due to introduction of the 4 genes.
It is a medium duration variety with an average yield of 4.68 tonnes/ hectare. It takes 135 days for seed-to-seed maturity.
Pusa Basmati 1886 is an improvement on the popular Pusa Basmati 6 variety. This variety also exhibits resistance against bacterial blight and blast diseases. Notably, Pusa Basmati 6 is highly susceptible to both these diseases.
This Pusa Basmati 1886 takes 145 days for seed-to-seed maturity and gives an average yield of 4.49 tonnes/ hectare.
More than 90 per cent of the area under Basmati rice cultivation, in the GI-tagged area, grows Pusa Basmati 1121, Pusa Basmati 1509 and Pusa Basmati 6. These 3 varieties account for over 90% of the Basmati exports from India. Basmati rice is an important export commodity, that earned Rs. 25,053 crores in forex in 2021-22.