State panel approves another short-duration paddy variety PR-130

LUDHIANA : The State Variety Approval Committee has approved the PR-130 variety of parmal rice for cultivation in the state. A communique shared by PAU stated that the panel includes director, agriculture, Punjab; director, research, PAU; rice experts and sheller owners.

The Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana, has developed the PR-130 variety of rice by crossing the most popular variety PR-121 with another short-duration variety HKR 47.

The approval came after the PR-126 seed, the most famous short-duration variety of paddy crop developed by the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU), had gone off the shelves.

Highlighting its salient characteristics, Dr Gurjit Singh Mangat, additional director of research (crop improvement), said, “It is a mid-maturing, lodging tolerant, bacterial blight resistant variety with better milling quality characteristics. It matures in about 105 days after transplanting.” “It possesses long slender clear translucent grains with high total and head rice recoveries. The variety resists the attack of all 10 presently prevalent pathotypes of bacterial blight pathogen in the Punjab state,” Dr Mangat said.

SAD, BJP seek probe into black-marketing of PR-126 variety

The black-marketing of PR-126 variety of rice has heated up politics as both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) demanded a highlevel probe in the matter.

BJP state president Ashwani Sharma said while AAP is encouraging farmers to opt for direct seeding of rice (DSR) but the seed compatible for it is being hoarded and blackmarketed.