کے چاولوں کو کیسے پہچان سکتے ہیں؟ آسان طریقہ
جانئے
جعلی چاول پہلی بار چین میں دیکھے گئے اور اس کے بعد ویتنام اور بھارت میں یہ دیکھنے کوملے۔یہ وہ ممالک ہیں جہاں چاولوں کو شوق سے کھایا جاتا ہے،اس کے بعد انڈونیشیااور یورپ میں بھی یہ چاول پائے جاتے ہیں۔دیکھنے میں یہ چاول اصل چاولوں کی طرح لگتے ہیں اور پہلی ہی نظر میں انہیں پہچانا نہیں جاسکتالیکن ان کے استعمال کی وجہ سے پیٹ میں درد ہونے لگتی ہے۔تحقیقاتی رپورٹس کے مطابق یہ چاول آلو اور سینتھیٹک (مصنوعی)ریشوں سے بنائے جاتے ہیں۔انہیں عام آنکھ سے نہیں پہچانا جاسکتا لیکن ان کی پہچان کا طریقہ یہ ہے کہ جب انہیں ابالا جائے تو ان کی ہیت اور شکل تبدیل نہیں ہوتی اور یہ ویسے ہی رہتے ہیں جیسے کچے ہوتے ہوئے ان کی شکل ہوتی ہے۔ان کی کوئی خوشبو نہیں ہوتی اور انہیں سونگھنے پر پلاسٹک کی بو آتی ہے
K Deepalakshmi
Thanks
to the IR8 variety, India is self-sufficient in rice production. | Photo Credit: N. Rajesh
IR8, the high-yielding rice variety
helped India fight famine, turns 50 this month
In 1967, when a 29-year-old N. Subba
Rao sowed a semidwarf variety of rice in over 2,000 hectares in Atchanta, West
Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, he wouldn't have thought he would be part
of a revolution in rice cultivation.What Dr. Rao sowed in his farm was IR-8, a
rice variety developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) that
could produce as much as seven tonnes of rice per hectare, while the
traditional seeds could produce only two tonnes per hectare. The rice was first
introduced in 1966 in Philippines, where the agri-research firm was based.
The research for a developing a
high-yield variety of rice began in 1960s when most Asian countries, including
India, were reeling under famine. Peter Jenning, who joined as a rice breeder at
the IRRI began experiments with rice crossing. The team tried as many as 38
crosses involving rice varieties from China, Taiwan and Indonesia.
Green revolution in India
At around the same time, Agriculture
Minister C. Subramaniam invited Nobel-laureate Norman Borlaug to work on
improving the agricultural sector in the country. Borlaug went on to
revolutionise wheat cultivation in the country. But India was largely a
rice-eating nation. Rice was cultivated in everyregion, from the hilly terrains
of north and north-east to the coasts of south. And IR8 came as a boon.
Dr. Subba Rao's mass cultivation
paved way for farmers using this high-yield variety. At an event to mark the
50th anniversary of the IR8 variety, eminent agricultural scientist Prof M.S.
Swaminathan said, "The success of IR8 was largely due to its high yield
potential and the synergy generated between technology and public policy."
Dr. Swaminathan had a key role in popularising the IR8 and subsequent
high-yielding varieties of paddy in India.
He recalled how a farmer in Tamil
Nadu's Thiruvannamalai district named his son Irettu (8 is 'ettu' in Tamil).
Mr. Ganesan, the farmer, had harvested about 16 tonnes per hectare of paddy,
said Prof. Swaminathan, while the earlier yields were less than two tonnes per
hectare.
Farmers' favourite
The IR8 became popular with farmers
because it had a short growth duration and a high yield related to its response
to nitrogen fertilizer, says the IRRI on its website. The resistance of this
variety to pest and insect attacks was another reason why farmers preferred it.
Being much smaller in size, the IR8 could withstand wind action unlike the
traditional tall paddy. These paddy are ready for harvest in just 105 days.
Indian scientists took a cue from
this on rice crossing and developed more dwarf varieties such as IR 20, IR 36
and IR 50.
Seeing the success in India and the
Philippines, a member of Dr. Jenning's took it to war-torn Vietnam. It was
fondly called "Honda rice" in Vietnam, as a bumper harvest assured
farmers enough money to fund a Honda motorcycle. The rice variety travelled to
Latin America the same year and eventually became the most sought-after variety
in the tropical regions.
Impact of climate change
A study published by Field Crops
Research journal in 2010 explains how the yield has dropped by 15 per cent due
to climate change. Researchers have blamed hotter nights, frequent flooding and
air pollution for the drop in the yield of IR8.
The same was emphasised by Dr.
Swaminathan. "In the future, rice will play an important role in climate
change management since it can grow under a wide range of altitudes and
latitudes. For example, rice has grown below sea level in Kuttanad area of
Kerala. At the same time, it is grown in high Himalayas. Wheat has no such
resilience and is very much depended upon favourable night temperature.
Therefore, more research should be done on the role of rice in climate change
management," he said on Monday.As IR8 turns fifty, it might get ready for
another makeover, this time to stand the tests of climate
http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/agriculture/The-rice-that-changed-the-world/article16675919.ece
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