The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Coimbatore News : `State can become key exporter of rice'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 02, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

`State can become key exporter of rice'

Staff Reporter

COIMBATORE: With water shortages likely to reduce rice production in China and Indonesia rather than India, Tamil Nadu has the potential to become a key exporter of the crop, the Vice-Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), C. Ramasamy, has said.

At the two-day `Rice Scientists Meet' that concluded at the University on Saturday, Prof. Ramasamy said that rice research ought to be directed towards export needs as well.

Farm scientists could look into the possibilities of increasing the areas under aromatic rice - like basmati rice - in Tamil Nadu. Studies at the TNAU research station at Paiyur in Krishnagiri district had found basmati rice performing well in research station trials.

"Currently, rice farmers are considered poor farmers, but the condition can be reversed by encouraging farmers to grow rice on commercial basis for niche markets," he said.

Transporting rice into Tamil Nadu would benefit consumers, while moving stocks outside the State would benefit farmers. Nearly half the people in the State lived in urban areas and might shift to consumption of high quality rice.

Prof. Ramasamy urged scientists to draw up new water management practices, identify microbes that could increase the availability of nitrogen in the soil and step up research to fortify rice with proteins, vitamins and minerals.

Supplementing the views of the Vice-Chancellor, the Director of Research, TNAU, S. Ramanathan, said the University was currently testing a promising hybrid rice variety, conducting multi-location trials on new rice cultures for semi-dry conditions, and working on `aerobic rice' that consumed lesser quantities of water without any significant drop in yield.

Increase in productivity

He noted that the projected global rice demand for 2025 was 700 million tonnes, but current production was only 545 million tonnes.

Presenting an overview of the rice economy, the Director, Centre for Agricultural and Rural Development Studies, TNAU, N. Raveendran, said that in Tamil Nadu, rice production was less than consumption, yield growth was low, demand for fine grain varieties was going up, production costs were rising, and States such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Orissa were offering increasing competition.

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