Rice, the second most important staple food,in addition to meeting food requirements,is also a source of foreign exchange earning. The earnings from it are second to cotton, with basmati, sharing more than Irri.

Recently, both basmati and Irri prices have shown a decline due to the over-production not only in South Asia, but in African countries too. For the last few years the Sindh growers are not getting adequate price of their Irri rice on account of stiff competition in the international market from China, Thailand, Vietnam, etc, which offer hybrid course rice which competes with Irri-6 variety. Among many genetic approaches to break the yield barrier, this technology has appeared to be the most feasible and readily adoptable one. The Chinese scientist who developed the strain, Professor Yuan Long Ping, says hybrid rice has a promising future for food security, and the second generation of super hybrid rice will produce a record yield of 12 tonnes per hectares.

During the Kharif 2001 season, the Guard Agricultural Research and Services Private Limited in collaboration with the M/s Yuan Longpin High-Tech Agriculture Company Ltd of China introduced “Hybrid Rice” in Districts Larkana, Shikarpur and Jacobabad of upper Sindh. Yields obtained ranged from 83 to 105 maunds per acre, and the crop transplanting to harvesting period was 100 days against 120 days of Irri-6 variety. Moreover, seeds of hybrid rice was also supplied free of cost to the selected growers. In view of high per acre yield and short growing period as compared to Irri-6 — which covers over 80 per cent rice acreage in upper Sindh — many growers during the current Kharif season switched over to the hybrid rice cultivation.

This year the hybrid rice seed was supplied for Rs197 per kg with the cost of cultivation coming to Rs1379 per acre, which was not affordable for many growers and out of ignorance they resorted to cultivation with the seed produced by the last year’s rice crop. The seed rate applied was 20kg per acre against the recommended 7kg per acre of F1 generation hybrid rice. In this case, two different families are combined to get the seed, and after a year, the seed remains no longer hybrid.

Inspite of the above fact the growers are expecting to reap good yield, more than the Irri-6 cultivated in the adjoining fields. When this development was discussed with the President Rice Miller’s Association of Sindh and Balochistan Gada Hussain Mahesar fear was expressed that the use of F2 generation hybrid seeds for cultivation would likely spoil the purity of Irri-6 which was the main variety exported from Sindh. The basic reason being lack of proper procurement, and the absence of marketing tools, which will allow unbridled mixing of this variety with Irri-6 — though this too is coarse but superior in many aspects viz: the shape, size, whiteness, translucency, and the cooking quality. The mixing of inferior quality hybrid rice with Irri-6 would further create problem for the exporter.

Review of various articles and reports published internationally has indicated that since 1994, 23 hybrid rice varieties have been developed by Irri and distributed to 9 Asian countries, including India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Thailand. China tops this list followed by India. China is also the global leader in developing hybrid rice seed. Currently nearly half of its 15 million hectares of paddy lands are sown with these seeds.

However, yet the onward march of hybrid rice fields through Asia fails to impress the non-governmental organization (NGO’s) like the Genetic Resource Action International (Grain) and the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI). Hybrid rice presents a “serious threat” reports Grain in a study titled: “Hybrid Rice in Asia: An unfolding Threat”.