Kasalath recognised as Bangladeshi rice
The Manila-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) has finally recognised "Kasalath" as a Bangladeshi rice variety, which was initially termed as an Indian variety.
Kasalath, a traditional rice variety, is grown in Sylhet region and in parts of north-eastern India, and IRRI has recently developed some varieties from Kasalath, which could increase rice production by 25 percent, said Abed Chowdhury, a Bangladesh geneticist living in Australia, who took the initiative to get the IRRI recognition.
Kasalath is an "Aush" rice variety and in 1960s he heard about it a lot in Sylhet region, he told a solo discussion at the capital's Jatiya Press Club yesterday.
As the international science journal, Nature, published a report on the discovery of the rice variety in August and mentioned it as India's "Bharatiya Buno Dhan" variety, he took the initiative to get the IRRI recognition for Bangladesh, he said.
According to researchers, the rice varieties developed from Kasalath are infused with "phosphorus Starvation Tolerance" gene called PSTOL-1, identified in Kasalath. The gene has potentials to enable rice plants to produce 25 percent more grain by increasing uptake of phosphorus, an important but limited plant nutrient.
Abed said 20,000 or 50,000 varieties of rice were in Bangladesh but now only 6,000 were collected. He termed Kasalath a symbol of potential of Bangladeshi rice and everyone should come forward to save the Bangladeshi varieties even by cultivating limitedly.
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