Kalanamak rice is now small and strong

Subject: Environment

Context-

Kalanamak, a traditional variety of paddy grown in 11 districts of the Terai region of northeastern Uttar Pradesh and in Nepal has been prone to ‘lodging’, a reason for its low yield.
Lodging is a condition in which the top of the plant becomes heavy because of grain formation, the stem becomes weak, and the plant falls to the ground.

New varieties of the Kalanamak rice-

Addressing the problem, the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) has successfully developed two dwarf varieties of Kalanamak rice.
They have been named Pusa Narendra Kalanamak 1638 and Pusa Narendra Kalanamak 1652.
The new name is in recognition of its association with the Acharya Narendra Dev University of Agriculture and Technology in Ayodhya, for testing the two varieties.
The traditional Kalanamak paddy’s yield is barely two to 2.5 tonnes per hectare.
The yield of the new varieties is double that of the traditional variety.

GI Tag to the traditional variety-

The traditional Kalanamak rice is protected under the Geographical Indication (GI) tag system.
It’s recorded in the GI application that Lord Budhha gifted Kalanamak paddy to the people of Sravasti so that they remembered him by its fragrance.

Cross-breeding of the kalanamak rice-

The breeding programme is done by bringing the dwarfing genes from the rice variety Bindli Mutant 68, and also the gene of Pusa Basmati 1176 was used as a parent to cross with Kalanamak, and the progenies were further backcrossed with Kalanamak to restore its quality. This is a novel mutation.
In this Kharif season, it was given to farmers.
The aroma of the new breed is higher and nutritional qualities are also excellent.
Productivity has gone up to 4.5 to five tonnes per hectare as against 2.5 tonnes in the case of traditional Kalanamak.