March 22: The Haryana Agriculture University (HAU) at Hissar and the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) at Ludhiana have come out with several new crop varieties that will benefit the region's farmers. While the HAU has come out with 19 new crop varieties, the PAU has developed a new dwarf variety of rice which is resistant to bacteria. The new varieties developed at HAU are for tomato, methi, gram, barley, sugarcane, cotton, wheat, maize and rice.HAU vice-chancellor JB Chaudhary claimed that this was the first time the university had come out with so many new varieties. The earlier varieties of vegetables and fruits developed at HAU have become quite popular among farmers of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.
Chaudhary said the newly developed sugarcane variety COS 8436, the American cotton variety HS 182, and the "Desi" cotton variety HD123 were "landmarks" in research.
The other varieties -- WH912 for durum wheat, HHM1 and HHMS-2 for maize hybrids, COH-101 for sugarcane, theAAH-1 desi cotton hybrid, HD328 for cotton, BH393 for barley and HM350 for "methi" had been "identified" for testing in the fields.
Thereafter, after undergoing many successful tests in fields, these new varieities would be released to farmers. The tests would primarily display to the scientists how these new varieties withstood against various diseases.
He said the university was credited with developing AAH-1, the first desi cotton hybrid in north India. About the new varieties, the sugarcane variety COS-8 436 belongs to the mid-early group of maturity, and was of medium height, resistant to logging and fairly tolerant to major diseases and pests. The desi cotton variety HD123 matures in 220 days and its fibre is suitable for non-spinnable uses. The American cotton variety HS182 has been recommended for May month.
The PAU's new variety PR-113 for rice is resistant to all races of bacterial blight pathogens prevalent in Punjab. According to Dr Kirpal Singh Aulakh, director (research), the new varietyof rice would bring grain yields of the bold type and heavy type. The speciality of this variety is that it would mature in 142 days and the average yield would be 2800 kg of paddy per acre.
PAU scientists are working on several new varieties of crops and research on hybrid seed production, according to Aulakh. All the new varieties being developed were of superior quality and would have better seeds.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
