In Situ Conservation of Traditional Rice Varieties of Uttara Kannada

Gayatri H. Naik, C. Balachandran,M.D. Subash Chandran and T.V. RamachandraEnergy & Wetlands Research Group, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science

Bangalore – 560 012.

IMPORTANCE OF TRADITIONAL VARIETIESINTRODUCTION

Rice is an economically important food crop. It feeds nearly half the world’s

population and accounts for more than 50% of their daily calorie intake (Maclean

et al. 2002).

The world is losing genetic diversity of rice

Major reason for this loss is the steady replacement of native varieties with

high-yielding new varieties in large scale.

India: Land of genetic diversity of rice (100,000 local varieties) and about 90%

are feared to be lost

IMPORTANCE OF TRADITIONAL VARIETIES

High diversity at genetic level.

Diverse qualities for rice- height of plant, colour, size, aroma, maturity and

habitat.

More fodder (5-7 ft height unlike new dwarf varieties).

Disease, pest, drought and flood resistance more.

OBJECTIVES•To trace out traditional varieties remaining in Uttara Kannada•To find out their special characters•To estimate number of traditional varieties in the district using field surveyand regression analysis for prediction of expected number in the district

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Altogether, a total of 181 rice varieties were inventoried from 232 villages,

during this survey. Of these, 101 varieties were traditional ones; 80 were

new varieties, considered high yielding.

Taluk-wise numbers found and numbers expected are presented in the

table:1

HABITAT SPECIALIZATIONS

For flood tolerance Eg: Neermulka; Mysore mallige;

Salinity tolerance Eg: Bili-kagga; Kari-kagga.

Drought tolerance Eg:Jeddkempi; One-kaddi.

Variable maturity periods: Halga, Jeddubatha (90 -100 days); Dibnasaala,

Figure 1: Map of Uttara Kannada district with 11 taluks

TaluksVillage covered

Rice varietiesTotal varietiesencountered

Expected traditional varieties

Traditional

New varieties

Total 232 101 80 181 492

Ankola 17 18 14 32 81

Bhatkal 16 14 15 29 45

Haliyal 20 15 12 27 92

are feared to be lostand regression analysis for prediction of expected number in the district Variable maturity periods: Halga, Jeddubatha (90 -100 days); Dibnasaala,

Bantwala (100 -120 days); Hegge, Aloorusanna ( 120 -140 days)

Table 1: Traditional rice varieties with expected varieties in 11 taluks of Uttara KannadaFigure 2: Trends of diverse traditional rice varieties in

Uttara Kannada

y = 0.3586x + 26.968

R2 = 0.928660

80

100

120N

o. o

f tr

adit

ion

al v

arie

ty

Haliyal 20 15 12 27 92

Honnavar 21 25 15 40 93

Joida 2 1 10 11 -

Karwar 11 9 10 19 45

Kumta 42 39 17 56 112

Mundgod 10 8 10 18 68

Sirsi 45 35 28 63 155

Yellapur 11 20 13 34 218

Siddapura 36 33 34 67 165

Ankola

25

Tra

dit

ion

al r

ice

va

rieti

esHaliyal

20

Figure 3: Village-wise diversity sampling trends regarding traditional rice varieties in 10 taluks of Uttara Kannada (after rarefaction)

Some traditional rice varieties in Uttara Kannada

R2 = 0.9286

0

20

40

60

0 50 100 150 200 250Village covered

No.

of

trad

itio

nal

var

iety

Mundgod

y = 0.7175x + 1.1873

R2 = 0.9847

0

2

4

6

8

10

Tra

dit

ion

al ri

ce

va

rie

ty

y = 0.8806x + 4.3154

R2 = 0.95

0

5

10

15

20

0 5 10 15 20

Village covered

Tra

dit

ion

al r

ice

va

rieti

es

Kumta

y = 0.8772x + 8.0093

R2 = 0.9641

0

7

14

21

28

35

42

49

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Tra

dit

ion

al r

ice

vari

ety

Haliyal

y = 0.6487x + 3.1784

R2 = 0.9567

0

4

8

12

16

0 5 10 15 20 25village covered

Tra

dit

ion

al

ric

e v

ari

ety

CONCLUSIONS

High landscape heterogeneity and strong in agriculture traditions make Uttara Kannada a stronghold of

genetic diversity of rice and other crops

The genepool of rice was neglected all the while and even the agriculture department does not maintain

data on local varieties

Widespread introduction of dwarfish new varieties, considered high yielding, is a major threat to rice

gene-pool.

0 2 4 6 8 10 12village covered

Sirsi

y = 0.6695x + 6.7266

R2 = 0.9673

0

7

14

21

28

35

42

0 10 20 30 40 50village covered

Tra

dit

ion

al ri

ce

vari

ety

Siddapur

y = 0.7857x + 8.3717

R2 = 0.9181

14

21

28

35

42

Tra

dit

ion

al

ric

e v

ari

ety

Honavar

y = 0.988x + 0.936

R2 = 0.9977

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

0 5 10 15 20 25 30Village covered

Tra

dit

ion

al

ric

e v

ari

ety

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40Village covered

Bhatkal

y = 0.6862x + 2.3832

R2 = 0.9747

8

12

16

Tra

dit

ion

al r

ice

vari

etie

s

A widely adapted and high yielding local variety

gene-pool.

New varieties are susceptible to high disease and pest attacks and marginally high yield is often

eclipsed by these drawbacks

Introduction of new varieties has caused fodder crisis in the district which is adversely affecting milk

production and availability of cattle dung for manure

We have predicted using the sample survey method and regression analysis the talukwise numbers of

local varieties available in Uttara Kannada; with nearly 500 expected varieties

0

7

0 10 20 30 40

Village covered

Tra

dit

ion

al

ric

e v

ari

ety

Yellapur

y = 1.6745x + 2.5527

R2 = 0.9838

0

5

10

15

20

25

0 2 4 6 8 10 12Village covered

Tra

dit

ion

al

ric

e v

ari

ety

0

4

0 5 10 15 20village covered

Tra

dit

ion

al r

ice

vari

etie

s

Karwar

y = 0.7875x + 1.6273

R2 = 0.9746

0

3

6

9

12

0 2 4 6 8 10 12Village covered

Tra

dit

ion

al

ric

e v

arie

ty