Indian scientists are developing varieties of transgenic rice tolerant to water stress conditions, Ajay Parida, executive director, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), has said.
Field trials of the rice variety that needs little water for cultivation were progressing at Kalpakkam, he told delegates at a plenary session on Biotechnology at the ongoing 97th Indian Science Congress here on Wednesday.
Dr. Parida said the MSSRF had developed other transgenic varieties of rice that were salt resistant and drought tolerant.
These varieties, impregnated with mangrove genes, were developed under the anticipatory research programme of the foundation, he said.
He said efforts were on to develop a new variety of rice with fortified iron content to address micro nutrient deficiency. The development of the rice with ferritin gene was in the regulatory stage.
Other transgenic varieties with heavy metal tolerance and accumulation characters were also in the pipeline.
These crop varieties could help in phyto remediation of soil contaminated with heavy metals like arsenic or cadmium.
Dr. Parida said the MSSRF had taken defensive patents on all the varieties under development.
Responding to questions, he said field trials had demonstrated a 40 per cent increase in yield for saline-resistant transgenic rice. Biotechnology breeding methods in India were properly regulated, he said.
Head of the department of biotechnology, University of Kerala, G.M. Nair, who chaired the session, said the development of transgenic varieties that could withstand various kinds of adversity would make a sustainable green revolution possible in India.
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