Where they breed paddy for over a century

January 25, 2015 12:00 am | Updated 05:36 am IST - COIMBATORE:

The exhibits waiting to be displayed at the museum coming up at the Department of Rice, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.—Photo: S. Siva Saravanan

The exhibits waiting to be displayed at the museum coming up at the Department of Rice, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.—Photo: S. Siva Saravanan

Right in the middle of the paddy fields on Thondamuthur Road is an ochre, tile roofed room whose walls bear witness to the works of a few great men, who ensured food for the masses.

And it is in this room the Paddy Breeding Station was born over a century ago. It will soon become a museum showcasing the history of paddy breeding since the British Raj. And, at present, the room is part of the Department of Rice, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU).

Vice-Chancellor K. Ramasamy says that the room will have old implements, photographs, paintings and everything that will bring alive the paddy breeding work that has been going on since 1912, starting with F.R. Parnell, who arrived here as the government economic botanist to collect paddy varieties. Thus was born the modern India’s first paddy breeding station.

The Imperial Government did establish another paddy breeding station in 1911. But, that is in Dakha with the new name, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute.

S. Robin, Head of the Department of Rice, says Parnell’s job was to collect various paddy varieties in South India, study and document them.

They had the help of an artist, whose paintings are intact and fresh even today and appear as good as photographs.

The museum to-be has a photograph showing the receipt of Valwadam paddy variety from the tahsildar of Bezawada (Vijayawada) on October 1903. Mr. Robin says that though the Imperial Government established the breeding station only in 1912, the work started at least a decade earlier.

The room also has old glass slides with picture negatives of paddy varieties to be projected and shown during seminars, a gold-plated microscope, equipment used in paddy collection, century-old books containing drawings of various paddy varieties and much more.

He says that Parnell, his successor R.O. Iliffe and his successor K. Ramiah and a few others collected close to 2,500 traditional paddy varieties from the Indian sub-continent.

To date, the university has the varieties stored in the Ramiah Cold Storage Bank.

The work of the scientists at the breeding station included plant protection research and crop management research. Mr. Ramasamy says that it was at the paddy breeding station that the first variety GEB 24 was identified and promoted. This GEB 24 was to later become a parent for more than 770 paddy varieties developed across the world.

As on date, Mr. Robin says, the breeding station has developed 51 varieties and four hybrids. The museum to-be will house all the details and soon be thrown open to the public.

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