Question : HYBRID RICE

(a) whether the Government has set any target for increasing acreage of hybrid rice in the country during each of the last three years and the current year;

(b) if so, the details thereof and the success achieved therein;

(c) whether there are reports of huge loss of crops due to bacterial infections in various parts of the country including Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, if so, the details thereof along with the estimated loss accrued to the farmers as a result thereof;

(d) whether the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) has developed any new rice variety to control bacterial infection in the crop; and

(e) if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE (SHRI MOHANBHAI KUNDARIA)

(a) & (b): Government of India has not fixed any target for increasing acreage of hybrid rice in the country. However, efforts are being made to promote cultivation of hybrid rice through various crop development programmes such as National Food Security Mission (NFSM), Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India (BGREI) and Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY).

From the initial level of 10,000 hectares in 1995, area under hybrid reached one million hectare in 2006. It has picked up during the last nine years, mainly because of increasing popularity of hybrid rice in eastern Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and area under hybrid rice has exceeded to 2.5 million hectares during 2014, which is about 5.6% of the total rice area in the country.

(c): Although, there are reports of incidence of bacterial infection, but no report about huge loss to paddy crop have been received from state governments of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

(d) & (e): Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) and Directorate of Rice Research (DRR) have jointly developed bacterial blight resistant variety ‘Improved Samba Mahsuri’ which variety was notified and released for cultivation in 2008. The variety has so far spread to an area of 90,000 ha in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.