Raghunathpur: As many as seven new indigenous varieties of paddy seeds developed by the farmers here in Jagatsinghpur district have received the government’s approval. The matter came to the fore at a function held on the premises of Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) in Bhubaneswar, Monday. The farmers working under an agriculture-based outfit ‘Live and Let Live’ (LAL) were felicitated with certificates at the function organised by OUAT. The farmers were identified as Khetramohan Behera, Sudhiranjan Barik, Krushna Chandra Swain, Ashok Kumar Barik, Bijay Kumar Patra and Kadambini Behera and Abani Behera. Khetramohan was felicitated for developing ‘Lal Kuber’ paddy seeds, Sudhiranjan for ‘Lalmani’, Krushna Chandra for ‘Lalpari’, Ashok Kumar for ‘Ratnamenti’, Bijay Kumar for ‘LalS-5’, Kadambini for ‘Lal Basna’ and Abani for ‘Lal-S-13’ indigenous varieties of paddy seeds.
Sources said these seven farmers on behalf of LAL have been working to develop these new indigenous varieties of paddy seeds for the last five years since 2012. They have been carrying out series of examinations to develop these paddy seeds.
Finally, the OUAT, IPR cell head Dayanidhi Mishra took up the matter and sent the newly developed seeds for examination to the Plant Varieties Registry department of Centre in 2017. The seeds underwent a series of tests at various laboratories in the country. Later, the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Right Authority, Union Ministry of Agriculture accorded ‘True Breeder’ certificate to the farmers for developing these seeds. When contacted, LAL secretary Khetramohan Behera said that these paddy seeds of indigenous varieties are more tolerant to pest and disease attacks and high-yielding in nature.
Moreover, these varieties will also help the farmers in raising their income, he said. He also thanked agricultural scientist Ekadashi Nanda, former chief seeds certificate officer Sarat Kumar Pradhan, scientists Satya Ranjan Das and Harish Chandra Bhuyan for their help and cooperation in getting this approval.
