Agriculture minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday unveiled two indigenously developed genome-edited rice varieties which can potentially boost grain yield by 25-30%.
The varieties Kamala and Pusa DST Rice 1, developed by Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad and Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Delhi respectively, will be ready for commercial cultivation in the next four to five years.
These are not genetically modified seeds insertion of foreign gene, so won’t require approval of the Generic Engineering Appraisal Committee for commercial cultivation.
“These are the world’s first genome edited rice and would help us meet the target of reducing area under paddy by five million hectare (MHa),” the minister said. “These varieties will play a leading role in heralding the second green revolution in the country,” the minister added.
The new varieties are expected to replace widely used varieties Sambha Mahsuri and Cottondora Sannalu grown across 9 MHa in the country
Rice is currently grown in around 46 MHa in the both kharif and rabi season. India is the second biggest rice producer in the world and the output was 137 MT of rice in 2023-24 crop year (July-June). India has been biggest exporter of rice since 2012 shipped rice worth over $12 billion in FY25
These varieties are recommended for major rice-growing states including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Puducherry, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Bihar, and West Bengal.
“All issues relating to intellectual property rights of Genome-edited rice varieties would be addressed over the next couple of years of its development,” ML Jat, director general, ICAR, said.
In 2022, the government had exempted certain types of genome-edited crops from the stringent bio-safety regulations applicable to genetically-modified (GM) crops to ensure wider use of this technology and accelerate genetic improvement of crops in the country.
Currently around 30 countries have declared genome-edited crops as Non-GMO crops which are not altered through genetic engineering techniques.
“More such gene-edited varieties in about 40 crops are at different development stages,” KC Bansal, Chairman, technical advisory committee, ICAR-NASF network project on genome editing, told FE.
There are several crops including banana, wheat, tomato, tur, cotton are being developed using genome-edited technology that are in the pipeline for field trials in India.
The cultivation of new varieties which have sale and drought tolerance trains in about 5 million hectares of the recommended area will produce 4.5 MT of additional paddy, and a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 20% (32,000 tonnes), according to a ICAR official adding that there was no compromise on grain quality.
“The genome-edited line contains no foreign DNA, making it comparable to conventionally bred varieties,” according to an ICAR official. The technology enables scientists to make targeted changes in the native genes of living organisms, creating new and desirable traits without introducing foreign DNA.
The new rice varieties unveiled were field-tested under the All India Coordinated Research Project on Rice during the kharif season of 2023 and 2024, and demonstrated “remarkable improvements in yield performance under various stress conditions”.
In 2022, the environment ministry, in a notification had exempted site directed nuclease (SDN) 1 and 2 genomes from Rules 7-11 of the Environment Protection Act, thus allowing it to avoid a long process for approval of GM crops through the GEAC.
Scientists associated with ICAR said the technology has great promise and emphasis is needed on improving oilseed and pulse crop varieties resistant to diseases, insects or pests, and tolerant to drought, salinity and heat stresses
Scientists say that genome-edited plants are different from genetically-modified organisms (GMO) technology. Genome editing is a group of technologies that gives scientists the ability to change an organism’s DNA.
The US and China are leaders in usage of this technology for developing crop varieties like rice, maize, soyabean, canola and tomato which withstand biotic and abiotic stresses arising out of climate change.
