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Ghorashal Power Plant

Sylhet region rice raises new hope

IRRI’s gene-tech shows 20pc higher yield

Reaz Ahmad
In a major headway in rice research, field tests of some new varieties of the food grain with 20 percent higher yield are going to be conducted in the country.
The Manila-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has developed these varieties from "Kasalath", a traditional rice variety grown in Bangladesh's Sylhet region and parts of northeastern India.
Upbeat at the prospect of a sharp rise in yield, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) is now procuring the new varieties from the IRRI for field tests.
According to researchers, these rice varieties are infused with "Phosphorus Starvation Tolerance" gene called PSTOL-1, identified in Kasalath. The gene has potentials of enabling rice plants to produce 20 percent more grain by increasing uptake of phosphorus, an important but limited plant nutrient.
IRRI scientists said they have already found "20 percent higher yield" from PSTOL-lgene-induced rice varieties in field tests in the Philippines and Indonesia recently.
The groundbreaking discovery announced by the IRRI and published in the international science journal, Nature, late last month
prompted the BRRI to send one of its top researchers to the IRRI headquarters for collecting the new rice varieties.
Contacted through e-mail, the researcher, BRRI Plant Breeding Division head Dr Helaluddin Ahmed, told The Daily Star yesterday, "There are some lines [varieties! IRRI has developed, and I have requested it to send some advance lines to Bangladesh. I hope these will work in our country." In an e-mail conversation, IRRI's lead scientist in the phosphorous gene research project Dr Sigrid Heuer told this correspondent last week, "We are having a training workshop starting Monday and have a participant from BRRI to initiate work on the gene in Bangladesh.
“For many years, we have searched for genes that
improve phosphorus uptake,” said Heuer.
According to a Bangladesh geneticist living in Australia, Abed Chowdhury, Kasalath rice is "native to Sylhet and its bordering areas in India".
Former BRRI director general Dr M A Hamid Miah, who was long associated with IRRI too, said Bangladesh would do better if the potentials of PSTOL-1 are tapped since it would increase rice plants' phosphorous uptake capacity and thereby save many rice plants from going sterile.
"In the absence of adequate phosphorous in acidic soil [lack of phosphorous turns soil acidic), particularly, many rice plants fail to grain-fill properly," he added.
As phosphorus in Bangladesh soil is usually between low and medium
levels, local researchers are enthusiastic about developing rice varieties infusing PSTOL1 gene.
Contacted, Dr Alamgir Hossain, principal plant breeder at BRRI, said gene sequencing of Kasalath was done in Japan and "IRRI has field-tested it. We need to explore its potentials in Bangladesh's agro-ecological conditions."
Kasalath's superior performance despite phosphorus deficiency was initially discovered by Dr Matthias Wissuwa from the Japan International Research Centre for Agricultural Sciences. He then started collaborating with IRRI and shared the DNA information ofKasalath.
Dr Heuer said, “We have now hit the jackpot and found PSTOL-1, the major gene responsible for improved phosphorus
uptake and understand how it works.
"Farmers can apply phosphorus fertilisers to increase productivity, but on problem soils phosphorus is often locked in the soil and unavailable to plants. PSTOL-1 helps rice (plants) grow a larger, better root system and thereby have access to more phosphorus."
Dr Tamai Lata Aditya, chief scientific officer at BRRI, who played a key role in developing some new generation rice varieties in recent years, told this correspondent, "We need to do the field tests of PSTOL-1 for varietal-adaptation. As a first step, we can start trialling the gene by infusing it in a few of our bestperforming rice varieties. This should work well in upland and acidic soil conditions."