Rice is the staple food in India and Bangladesh, accounting for more than half of the calories consumed by their citizens. It is also a major source of livelihood for farmers, covering a total of approximately 55 million hectares in both countries. About 600 improved varieties of rice have been released for cultivation since 1965. Rice-based production systems provide the main income and employment for more than 50 million households in India.

Rice production in South Asia continuously faces the challenge of keeping pace with an annual population increase, while the area of fertile wetland (lowland) available for rice farming is steadily decreasing due to urbanization and industrialization. To satisfy the demand for rice in the next decades, India and Bangladesh will have to expand rice cultivation to marginal dry-land (upland) areas, where rice production is severely hampered by dehydration stress due to drought. More than 90% of the decrease in rice production is a direct result of a reduction in planted area due to drought.

Challenges: Of the several factors that affect rice production, abiotic stresses limit rice yields in 9 million hectares in central and inland areas of the country. In India, water available for agriculture has fallen by nearly 10% during the last decade. While in Bangladesh, about 2.8 million hectares of coastal soil has become saline due to heavy withdrawal of surface and groundwater for irrigation and intrusion of seawater. The total saline area forms a third of the 9 million hectares of total national cultivated area in Bangladesh. In addition, drought has adversely affected rice in all three cropping seasons.

To meet growing demand, both the countries will have to expand their cultivation to dry land (upland) areas where production is hampered by dehydration stress due to drought. In such a scenario, development of transgenic rice tolerant to drought and salinity assumes significant importance.

Project Aim: To develop and commercialize transgenic rice tolerant to drought and salinity.

Potential Benefits: If technology were to increase increase current yields by 10%, it would result in an estimated incremental production value of US$ 624 million in India. Similarly for Bangladesh, an increase of 10% in yield would result in an incremental production value of US $ 255 million.

Countries for deployment are India and Bangladesh.

Collaborators:
College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), Cornell University, USA.
Cornell Center for Technology, Enterprise & Commercialization, USA.

India:
Department of Biotechnology (DBT)
Directorate of Rice Research (DRR)
Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (CSSRI)
The International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB)
Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore

Bangladesh:
Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Bangladesh
University of Dhaka