ગુજરાતી
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Kudrat revolution: A series of improved crop varieties
December 2017
Project: On-farm trials for farmers’ variety
Noushad Parvez
Swati Parihar
Hardev Choudhary
Improving quality of crop, increasing productivity and preserving loss of biodiversity is crucial for meeting demands ofincreasing population.This necessitated need for research institutes to release suitable plant varieties so as to enhanceproduction, tolerance to insect, pests and. National Innovation Foundation- India has been forefront in recognizing andpopularizing several of farmer developed varieties. Shri Prakash Singh Raghuvanshi is one among the progressive farmer whohas been continuously practising successive selection method and developing new varieties of crops like paddy, wheat,pigeon pea and mustard. These varieties are popularly named as “Kudrat”.
NIF-India has supported scientific validation anddissemination of these varieties at farmers’ field of Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissaand researchers have come up withdata revealing higher yield, bolder grain size, resistant to biotic stresses, etc. therefore, these varieties are widely accepted andappreciated by the growers.
Crops are the important source of several nutritionalcomponents viz., proteins, carbohydrates, fibres, vitaminsand mineral nutrients like calcium, iron, sodium, magnesium,serving the world’s population.
Despite the production ofcrop is increasing at a steady rate, it is not enough to feedthe increasing population. With the estimated worldpopulation to reach upto 9 billion by 2050 (World PopulationProspects, 2016: World Population Clock, 2017), the hugechallenges lie ahead.
Production of agricultural crop isalso affected by several abiotic stressors like mperature,water, salt, radiation, chemicals etc.
It is reported thataverage 50% yield losses in crop production are causedby abiotic factors (Wang et al., 2007).Paddy (Oryza sativa) is principal crop for theinhabitants of India with more than 40% of contribution intotal food grain cultivation and production (Singh, 2016).
There is steady increase in the production of paddy inIndia as per the demand raised, during 2010-11 it was96.7 million tonnes which increased to 105.31 million tonnesin 2011-12 and then 105.5 million tonne in 2014-15,however there is no noteworthy change under the area ofcultivation for the same period.
The major paddy producing states are West Bengalwith total contribution of 16145.3 tonne followed by UttarPradesh as 12894 tonne, then Punjab contributing 11194tonne followed by Andhra Pradesh as 9447.3 tonne andArunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland are the lowestcontributor as 0.8 tonnes, 1.3 tonnes and 8.1 tonnesrespectively.
Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is ranked as the secondimportant food crop in India.
The area under the wheatKudrat revolution :
A series of improved crop varietiesSwati Parihar, Noushad Parvez and Hardev ChoudharyNational Innovation Foundation- India, Grambharti, Gandhinagar (Gujarat) India(Email : hardev@nifindia.org)Volume 12 Issue 2 December, 2017 97-102RASHTRIYA KRISHIAbstractImproving quality of crop, increasing productivity and preserving loss of biodiversity is crucial for meeting demands ofincreasing population.
This necessitated need for research institutes to release suitable plant varieties so as to enhanceproduction, tolerance to insect, pests and National Innovation Foundation- India has been forefront in recognizing andpopularizing several of farmer developed varieties.
Shri Prakash Singh Raghuvanshi is one among the progressive farmer whohas been continuously practising successive selection method and developing new varieties of crops like paddy, wheat,pigeon pea and mustard.
These varieties are popularly named as “Kudrat”. NIF-India has supported scientific validation anddissemination of these varieties at farmers’ field of Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Orissaand researchers have come up withdata revealing higher yield, bolder grain size, resistant to biotic stresses, etc. therefore, these varieties are widely accepted andappreciated by the growers.
cultivation has increased from 26.48 million hectares during2005-06 to 31.46 million hectares in 2014-15. During thesame period the production of wheat increased from 69.35million tonne in 2005-06 to 94.88 million tonne in 2011-12there was again a fall in the production to 86.53 milliontonnes in 2014-15 due to unseasonal rain and hailstormsduring March to April 2015 (Directorate of Economicsand Statistics, Ministry of Agriculture, 2015-16).
The majorwheat producing states are Uttar Pradesh, Punjab,Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar,Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, West Bengal,Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir.Uttar Pradesh ranked first in terms of area and productionduring 2015-16 with total production of 25425.2 tonnefollowed by Madhya Pradesh contributing 17688.7 tonne,trailed by Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan withcontribution of 16077 tonne, 11352 tonne, 9871 tonne(Khatkar et al., 2016).Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) is one of the mostpopular and widely demanded pulse due to higher proteincontent.
However, the production of pigeonpea is notcorresponding with the pace of demand. During 2005-06the production was 2738 tonne which dropped to 2654during 2011-12 and then substantial increase was seenduring 2014-15 as 2807 tonne.
It has been estimated byMinistry of Agriculture and Farmers welfare, Govt. ofIndia that production of pigeonpea would rise upto 4600tonne during 2016-17.
Madhya Pradesh is the highestcontributor in the total production of country’s pigeon peawhich was around 578 tonne during 2015-16 followed byMaharashtra (561 tonnes), Karnataka (270 tonne), Utta Pradesh (238 tonne).
Mustard (Brassica juncea) is one of the main oilseedcrop and also the good source of omega-3 fatty acids,vitamin B-1, magnesium, phosphorus and copper.
It is alsoconsidered as one of the major source of income forgrowers of mustard. India holds third position in world’stotal production of Rapeseed and Mustard.
India saw afluctuated production of Rapeseed and Mustard from 8.13million tonnes during 2005-06 to 6.60 million tonnes in2011-12.
The production again increased to 7.88 milliontonnes in 2013-14 and fell down to 6.82 million tonnesduring 2014-15. Rajasthan is the leading producer ofRapeseed and Mustard in India. It contributed percent46.09 (2.89 million tonnes) in total production of countryin 2014-15.
The other leading producers were MadhyaPradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal andGujarat (India Stat., 2016).
Seed replacement rate plays a strong role and hasand direct correlation between crop production andproductivity.
Seed replacement rate for wheat variety inIndia increased by 0.77% from 2009 to 2010, it was32.63% during 2010 and very nominal increase to 32.55%was observed during 2011.
For paddy the percentageincrease was found to be increased from 33.6% to 37.47%in 2009 to 2010 and then subsequently to 40.42% in 2011.
There was tremendous fluctuation in the percentage ofpigeon pea, it was 27.79% in 2009 sudden fall from 27.79%to 17.51% was observed from 2009 to 2010 and then araise to 22.16% was seen.
Among Mustard crop seedreplacement rate was found 74.8% in 2009 than it declinedto 63.64 % in 2010 and then it again increased from 63.64%to 78.88% in 2011(Seednet India portal).
National seedpolicy, 2002 advocates the emphasis on enhancement ofthe seed replacement rates of various crops which wouldhave direct impact on food production targets.
Availabilityof good quality seeds is a major problem that farmers arefacing despite of huge institutional framework availablefor seed production due to high price of HYV, inadequatesupply of HYV, lack of awareness among farmers, lowpurchasing power, often exchange traditional varietieswithin the community, non-availability of quality seeds(Kakoty and Barman, 2015; Singh and Kumar, 2014; Singhet al., 2013).
Sustained increase in agriculture productionand productivity necessarily requires continuousdevelopment of new and improved varieties of crops andefficient system of production and supply of seeds to thefarmers.
To enhance the productivity and in order to meetthe demand of burgeoning population, several improvedvarieties are being developed by the research institutes,scientists and farmers.
Among several developed varietiesof important crops like paddy, wheat, pigeon pea andmustard, “Kudrat” series varieties have emergedrecently. These varieties are the outcome of successiveselection method, based on the unique traits (Choudharyet al., 2016; Chodvadiya et al., 2016).
Kudrat revolution: Kudrat revolutionist Shri PrakashSingh Raghuvanshi is an enterprising farmer born on 7thNovember, 1959.He residesin a small village Tadiya ofVaranasi district, UttarPradesh. Educated only upto9th class, he was forced toleave school due to loss ofmore than 60 % vision dueto wrong medication andpenicillin reaction.
Since hischildhood he loved doingexperiments, his poor eyesight could not stop him fromfollowing his passion though there were deep wound inboth his eyes and he underwent treatment for more than5 years.
But somehow he managed and started helpinghis father with the farm activities. He felt the problemsthat farmers were facing in his village; they weredissatisfied with the higher agricultural inputs and loweroutput, which was putting pressure on people to migratein pursuit of better livelihood.
From there the idea came inhis mind of developing the seeds by farmers themselvesas he believed that seeds developed by farmer would besuitable to local environmental conditions as the oneavailable in market are generalized and may not suit tothe environment.
Plant varieties developed by the farmerwould also help in effectively reducing input cost andimproving the output.
He shared the main source ofmotivation for coming up with developing improved varietyfor him was his father and Dr.
Mahatim Singh, formerProfessor at Banaras Hindu University (B.H.U.) andformer Vice Chancellor, G.B. Pant University ofAgriculture and Technology (GBPUAT). Dr. Singhencouraged him to develop improved varieties that wouldhelp farmers in raising better income thus improving theirlivelihood.
Shri Raghuvanshi has an insight that each andevery farmer of the country should get good quality organicseeds and high yielding varieties of crops.
(Save seeds, save the nation)Since 1995, he started with the battle of thedevelopment of new plant varieties he initiated with paddyand then followed by wheat, pigeon pea and mustard.
Financially he was not very strong; to carry the experimenthe took a loan from bank and relatives. He faced lots oftides and falls in the way of crop improvement, and wasin heavy debt.
After several attempts finally, he succeededwith the development of a paddy variety with improvedcharacteristics and at present, he has developed more than15 varieties (eg. ‘Kudrat’ series) with better yield andother anticipated unique traits.
Since the variety developedby him is free from chemicals and is natural so he namedthe variety as ‘Kudrat’. Initially, when the variety wasdeveloped to know the feedback about the variety hestarted ‘BEEJ DAAN MAHADAAN’ campaign in whichhe started distributing the seeds to the farmers andrequested to distribute the seeds to other fellow farmers’based on their feedback.
Shri Raghuvanshi has bredimproved varieties of wheat, paddy, mustard and pigeonpea through amass selection breeding method based onspecific morphological characters of the plants.
Fordissemination of the varieties, his efforts and unique styleare appreciable along with posters and banners which arecommonly used; he uses appealing (catchy) slogans toattract the public and also participates in various rallies,Haats, Kisan melas.
Shri Prakash Raghuvanshi has received severalawards and appreciations to his credit. He has beenappreciated largely for his efforts towards protectingindigenous plant varieties by his active participation isvarious campaigns, fairs, workshops etc.
He wasconferred with national award for the varieties in the year2009 by Smt. Pratibha Devi Singh Patil in 5th NationalBiennial Award Function organized by National InnovationFoundation- India (NIF database).
He has also beenprivileged to be a part of NIF informal Research AdvisoryCommittee (RAC) for evaluating the technologiesdeveloped by other grassroots innovators received at NIFfor the national biennial competitions. Addition to this hehas received a number of awards at various levels (bothdistrict and national) for his exemplary work.
The varietieshave been covered by print, electronic and social media.Thousands of farmers’ growing the varieties developedby Shri Prakash Singh Raghuvanshi are benefitted by thehigher yields, lower input cost and higher profits.
Improved crop varieties : Shri Prakash Singh hasdeveloped number of improved wheat, paddy, mustard andpigeon pea varieties, which are high yielding, bold seededwith good aroma/taste and tolerant to major pests anddiseases.
These varieties have been developed using massselection breeding method based on specific morphologicalcharacteristics of the plants.
Kudrat paddy varieties:
Four improved varieties ofpaddy viz., Kudrat 1,Kudrat 2,LalBasmati and Kudrat5were developedfrom HUVR-2-1, Pusa Basmati andHMT varieties, respectively. The specific feature ofKudrat 1 is smaller seeds and highly rich in vitamin A,whereas unique trait for Kudrat 2 is thin, long aromaticgrains, tolerant to blight and stem borer, Lal Basmati issweeter in taste with thin and long grains.
Kudrat 5 hasvery smaller size of seeds and resistant to blight disease.Kudrat wheat varieties: The creative farmer haddeveloped four wheat varieties i.e. Kudrat 9,Kudrat 3,Kudrat 7 and Kudrat 21. The yield of Kudrat 9 andKudrat 3 were about 55-60 q/ha and Kudrat 7 and Kudrat21 give good yield i.e. 60-65 q/ha (Table 2). The plantheight of Kudrat 9, Kudrat 3, Kudrat 7 and Kudrat 21is 92 cm, 88 cm, 89 cm, 90 cm, respectively.
The wheatvarieties in general are characterized by higher numberof ear bearing tillers, lengthy spikes, and more number ofseeds per spike, robust stem and high protein content.
Kudrat pegeon pea varieties :
The popular pigeon peavarieties Kudrat 3, Chamatkar and Karishmadevelopedby the innovator are long duration category with maturationperiod of 230-235, 260-265 and 220-230 days respectivelyand produce higher yield ranging from 10-15q/acre (Table3).
Kudrat mustard varieties: Th ree mu stard va ri eties weredeveloped using selection method viz., KudratVandana,Kudrat Gita and Kudrat Soni have an average seed yieldof 14.30 q/ha, 14.05 q/ha and 7.42 q/ha with an averageoil content of 42.30 %, 39.00 % and 35.50 %, respectively.
Special features of Kudrat Vandana is having higher number of seeds per pod and higher oil content; whereas,both Kudrat Gita and Kudrat Soni, are characterised bybunchy pods and bolder seeds.
Incubation support by National InnovationFoundation- India: NIF identified the extraordinary effortof the unsung hero and helped him in getting duerecognition, respect and reward for his varietiesandfacilitated the validation trials in research institute ofrespective crops, SAUs and on-farm trials at farmers’field throughout the country.
NIF has facilitated theregistration of Kudrat varieties under Protection of PlantVarieties and Farmers’ Rights Act, 2001 (PPV&FRA,2001).
The varieties Kudrat 7,17, 11 (wheat) and Kudrat3 (Pigeonpea) are under examination after DUS testing.The variety of wheat ‘Kudrat 9’ has been registered viaReg.
No. 15 of 2012 (Registrar, PPV&FRA, 2012). NIFhas also facilitated the validation and on-farm researchtrial of the varieties. The validation trials on the varietiesof wheat, pigeonpea and mustard were conducted atChandrashekar Azad University of Agriculture andTechnology (CSAUK), Kanpur, Indian Institute of PulsesResearch (IIPR), Kanpur and Directorate of Rapeseed-Mustard Research (DRMR), Bharatpur respectively.
Thereport of wheat varieties revealed that highest number ofgrain/ear was found in Kudrat 21 (100-120) followed byGajraj 7 (90-110), Kudrat 9 and 3 (60-70), Kudrat 7(50-60) and Kudrat 11 (50-55). Yield was found highestin Gajraj 7 as 65-70 q/ha, Kudrat 7,11 and 21 being thesame with 65-70 q/ha and Kudrat 9 and 3 with 55-60 q/ha.
The experimental trial on four wheat varieties (Kudra 2, 7, 9, 11) in comparison to local checks was alsoconducted in Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.
Themaximum plant height was recorded in Kudrat 7 (106cm) followed by Kudrat 2 (105 cm), PBW 343 (100 cm),HUW 234 (95 cm), Kudrat 9 (94 cm) and Kudrat 11 (92cm).
Highest biomass was obtained in Kudrat 11 foll owedby Kudrat 7, HUW 234, PBW 343, Kudrat 9 and Kudrat2.
The highest yield was in local check variety HUW 234as 59 t/ha, PBW 343 as 56 t/ha, Kudrat 11 as 52 t/ha,Kudrat7 as 49 t/ha and Kudrat 2 as 47 t/ha. HUW 234was the early maturing variety as 111 days followed byKudrat 2 (113 days) whereas Kudrat 11 and Kudrat 9taken 114 days to mature followed by Kudrat 7 and PBW343 (116 days).
The performance report on mustard varieties receivedfr om DRMR , Bharatpu r re vealed th at t he h igh est numberof seeds per siliqua was recorded in Kudrat Vandana(39.9) following by Pusa Gold (2 9.1) , Kudrat Gita (14 .6),Kudrat Soni (14.3) and Varuna (12.6).
The highest oilcontent was found in Kudrat Vandana with 42.3% and41.1%, 39.5%, 39% and 35.55% for Pusa Gold, Varuna,Kudrat Gita and Kudrat Soni, respectively.
Themaximum yield was in Varuna (15.89 q/ha) followed byKudrat Vandana (14.30 q/ha), Kudrat Gita (14.05 q/ha), Pusa Gold (12.10 q/ha) and Kudrat soni (7.42 q/ha).
During Kharif 2016, Kudrat Gita was given tofarmers for trial in two districts of Uttar Pradesh (Faizabadand Meerut), at 12 farmers’ field and found be at par interms of yield with other varieties cultivated in those areas.;Moreover, the variety had more number of branches,bolder seeds and good plant height (40-45 inches).
The validation trial of two innovator’s pigeonpeavarieties (Kudrat 3 and Chamatkar) along with threechecks (Mal 6, Bahar and Virat) was conducted at IIPR,Kanpur.
The result revealed the outstanding performancein term of grain yield in Kudrat 3 (3617 kg/ha) andChamatkar (2185 kg/ha) followed by Mal 6 (2140 kg/ha), Bahar (1687 kg/ha) and JP 6 (1176 kg/ha).
Maturityperiod for all the variety was found 235 days except forChamatkar which was 265 days.
Kudrat 3 pigeonpeavariety was also found to be superior in terms of yield andyield attributing traits and was suitable for cultivation underGandhinagar, Gujarat condition (Choudhary et al., 2016).
All the varieties were reported as bolder seeds than thelocally available varieties.
The field experiment on paddy varieties developedby Shri Raghuvanshi was conducted by ChandrashekharAzad University of Agricultural and Technology, Kanpur.
In 2016, NIF- India conducted on-farm trials on Kudrat5 in Angul district of Odisha and it was found that thetested variety is early maturing and requires lesser amountof water; it is tolerant to water logging and lesser loss ofgrain in the field during harvesting.
NIF-India has alsoprovided financial support to the Innovator for carryingout experiments, cultivation, establishing seed processingunit and scaling up marketing channels for the varietiesunder Micro Venture Innovation Fund (MVIF).
In the firstphase he was granted with Rs. 1,90,000/- which he haspaid back with benefit sharing and in the second phase ofMVIF, Rs. 3.0 lakh has been sanctioned to the innovator.
For disseminating the variety, he participated in variousfairs, Kisan mela and traditional food festival, Sattvik(organized by SRISTI, Ahmedabad) where he got goodresponse and order for the improved varieties.
With thevarious campaigns, workshops done by Shri Prakash Singhand continuous support of NIF, the varieties have beendisseminated successfully to incalculable farmers of fifteenstates including Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, MadhyaPradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttrakhand,West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Karnataka, Orissa,Haryana and Punjab. Feedback received from thegrowers was appreciable.
NIF has also signed an agreement with Aarti Seedsand Research Agritech Pvt. Ltd. for production and marketing of Kudrat series of pigeonpea and Wheatvarieties developed by Shri Prakash Singh Raghuvanshi.Conclusion: The journey of Shri Prakash SinghRaghuvanshi from a common man to a renowned nationalaward winner farmer is motivational.
His exemplaryefforts for developing the improved varieties have been asource of inspiration for millions of farmers of our country.It is required to disseminate such farmers’ developedvarieties at broader scale and strengthen the link betweenresearchers, institutes and farmers.
NIF- India not onlyrewarded and recognized the efforts of Shri Raghuvanshibut has also facilitated the mass scale spread of his varietiesthroughout the country and provided incubation supportas well to maximize the reach of Kudrat seed revolution.
Acknowledgement : The authors express their sincerethanks to Dr. Vipin Kumar, Director, National InnovationFoundation- India for providing financial support andencouragement to carry out the research work and toShri Prakash Singh Raghuvanshi for sharing the seeds ofthe varieties developed by him.
