Drought Tolerant Rice for Ensuring Food Security in Eastern India

Manzoor H. Dar, Showkat A. Waza, Sarvesh Shukla, Najam W. Zaidi, Swati Nayak, Mosharaf Hossain, Arvind Kumar, Abdelbagi M. Ismail and Uma S. Singh
Additional contact information
Manzoor H. Dar: AFC India Limited (Formerly Agricultural Finance Corporation Ltd), Kirti Nagar, New Delhi 110015, India
Showkat A. Waza: MCRS Sagam (Khudwani), SKUAST of Kashmir, Jammu and Kashmir 192124, India
Sarvesh Shukla: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI-India), NASC Complex, New Delhi 110012, India
Najam W. Zaidi: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI-India), NASC Complex, New Delhi 110012, India
Swati Nayak: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI-India), NASC Complex, New Delhi 110012, India
Mosharaf Hossain: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI-India), NASC Complex, New Delhi 110012, India
Arvind Kumar: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Banos, Laguna 4031, Philippines
Abdelbagi M. Ismail: International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Banos, Laguna 4031, Philippines
Uma S. Singh: International Potato Center (CIP), South Asia Center, NASC Complex, New Delhi 110012, India

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 6, 1-17

Abstract: Drought and limited availability of water serve as the serious limitation for rice production in rainfed ecosystems. Among the major rainfed rice-cultivating areas, states of eastern India occupy one of the largest drought-prone ecologies in the world. Cultivating drought tolerant rice varieties can serve as the most coherent approach to ensure food security in these areas. International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), along with its national collaborators, has developed drought tolerant rice varieties possessing high yield along with desirable grain quality. One such conventionally bred line, IR74371-70-1-1, has been released with different names in the different countries: in India as Sahbhagi Dhan, in Nepal as Sukha Dhan 3, and in Bangladesh as BRRI Dhan 56. This indicates the suitability of this line to show better performance across the wide range of environments. Sahbhagi Dhan is a short duration variety that has genetic drought tolerance and is more efficient at extracting available moisture from the soil. During drought years, farmers cultivating Sahbhagi Dhan obtained the yield advantage of 0.8 to 1.6 t ha −1 over currently grown long duration as well as traditional varieties. In 2012, when the paddy crop was hit by drought, Sahbhagi Dhan revealed the yield advantage of more than a t ha −1 , which reduced to 0.78 and 0.56 t ha −1 during non-drought years of 2013 and 2014, respectively. Data taken from head to head trials during 2017 showed that Sahbhagi Dhan exhibited better performance over the existing rice varieties grown by farmers even under non-drought conditions. The important feature of Sahbhagi Dhan is its evident impact under drought and no yield penalty under favorable conditions over the counterfactual varieties of the same duration. Along with better yield under drought, the important advantage of Sahbhagi Dhan is the short maturity duration of this variety. This allows the farmers to advance the succeeding crop and creates an opportunity for accommodating an additional crop under favorable rainfed ecology, thereby enhancing the cropping intensity. Since the majority of the farmers living in drought prone ecologies are socio-economically under privileged, Sahbhagi Dhan, along with other drought tolerant varieties, can serve as one of the most viable and deliverable technologies for eradicating poverty from these ecologies dependent on rainfed rice.

Keywords: rainfed rice; food security; drought tolerance; Sahbhagi Dhan; IRRI (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (11)

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