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10

COVER STORY

THE BASICS

WOMEN ARE THRIVING IN THE FIELD OF RESEARCH O

RICE CULTIVATION IN ODISHA. HERES W

I AM PROUD TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH THIS FIELD WHERE OPPORTUNITIES

FOR RECOGNITION ARE MANY. HERE, THERE ARE MORE PROSPECTS THAN
CONSTRAINTS MAYABINI JENA, PRINCIPAL SCIENTIST AND HEAD,
DIVISION OF CROP PROTECTION, CRRI

MONDAY MAY 18, 2015 | THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS | EDEX

WE WANT MORE WOMEN TO BE A PART OF AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH; IT WILL HELP IN THE

DEVELOPMENT OF THE FIELD AND ACCELERATE THE REALISATION OF DEVELOPMENT GOALS
T MOHAPATRA, DIRECTOR, CENTRAL RICE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

ON
WHY

11

K A S T U R I R AY I B H U B A N E S WA R

e it in laboratories, research fields or farmlands,

women play an important
role in rice production in
Odisha. Particularly, women scientists who have
been associated with rice research institutes like
Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Rice
Research Institute (ICAR-CRRI), Cuttack. They conduct
backbreaking research in fields related to the crop and apply
the same in fields to boost the crop yield in the 69 per cent
of cultivated area and about 63 percent of the total area under
food grains cultivation in the State. Being the staple food of the
State, Odishas economy is directly linked with improvements in
production and productivity of rice in the State.
Though research is not an area preferred by youngsters particularly women who graduate from the State agriculture universities
and colleges, there are a few who have opted to get into research due to
their passion for the field and satisfaction involved though the results
could take years to come by. These few have been in the field for long
and proved their mettle setting new trends for youngsters to emulate.
Research is a long process and youngsters these days want to earn
fast without having to wait. Research therefore should be taken up by
people who are ready to go that extra mile and do the hard work and
wait for years to get the result, says Meera Kar, principal scientist, crop
improvement division at CRRI, Cuttack. She also talks about the challenges in conducting research which gets doubled with issues that women
face managing the home.
Explaining about breeding a new rice variety, Meera, the only woman
rice breeder in the State says, the ultimate aim of any breeding programme is to develop varieties superior to existing ones, with respect to
yielding ability, grain quality, resistance/tolerance to biotic and abiotic
stresses or any other characteristics as per the breeding objective.
It takes about five-six years to develop a superior breeding line,
depending on the duration of the line. For commercial utilisation,
the superior breeding lines have to be released as varieties by either the Central or State variety release committees. The newly
developed breeding lines are evaluated for their performance in
multi-location trials conducted by All India Coordinated Rice
Improvement Project (AICRIP) for three years. Then the superior lines, which show outstanding performance over existing
varieties for three consecutive years are identified by Variety
Identification Committee (VIC) and subsequently released
and notified by either the Central or State variety release
committee, she says.
Meera does not have any fixed timings at the institute. We come even on holidays, early mornings and late in the evenings, not because of
compulsions but because our work demands us to take care of what we are
working on, she explains.
The process in breeding
for developing a

variety is also not easy. It begins

with hybridisation, growing the F1 to
F6 generations (several combinations of
cross-breeding) followed by selection, preliminary yield trial and seed increase of superior
lines, AICRIP Trials (Initial Variety Trial-Advanced
Variety Trial I-Advanced Variety Trial II), Identification by Variety Identification Committee (VIC) and finally release and notification by either the Central or State
variety release committee, says the 50-year-old scientist,
who has completed her PG and PhD from Orissa University
of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar in Plant Breeding and Genetics. She has been the recipient of eight gold medals as topper of the batch in BSc (Ag) and MSc (Ag) from Orissa
University of Agriculture and Technology and received gold medal
for outstanding group performance in Field Experience Training
awarded by National Academy of Agricultural Research Management,
Hyderabad in 1995.
Her current area of research includes resistance breeding for multiple insect pests and diseases, breeding rice for higher resource use
efficiency, development of super rice for different ecologies, development of high-yielding varieties for rain-fed shallow lowlands and using
socio-economic approaches, mechanism and transfer of technologies
for sustainable rice production
She has been trained at International Rice Research Institute, Philippines as well. She has bred seven high-yielding rice varieties for various
ecologies of rice which include CR Dhan 303, CR Dhan 304, CR Dhan 305,
CR Dhan 301, CR Dhan 306, CR Dhan 205, CR Dhan 206 (Gopinath).
Lipi Das, Senior Scientist, Division of Social Sciences, has been associated with CRRI since 2000 after qualifying through Agriculture
Research Service (ARS). A PhD from Benaras Hindu University, Lipi
feels, it is very important for women to get into research particularly
in the field of agriculture, as most farm work these days is done by
women. Unless we make them understand our new implements,
seeds, technology and demonstrate it to them, how will they benefit?
As a woman, I am at an advantage to make them listen to me and
convince them, says Lipi who uses gender sensitive approaches
to rice farming and participatory extension research apart from
women entrepreneurship development.
As most of the manual drudgery in the field is still handled
by women, an action research was undertaken in Sankilo
village of Nischintakoili block of Cuttack district by Lipi
and her team.
A Womens Development Group named Ananya
Mahila Bikash Samiti was mobilised with 30 farm
women. Suitable rice production technologies
were demonstrated to the group and they
were given training and taken on exposure visits, apart from supporting
them with continuous technical
back-stopping and
Continued s

Pic courtesy: M Tracy Hunter

12

COVER STORY

MONDAY MAY 18, 2015 | THE NEW INDIAN EXPRESS | EDEX

PICS: SHAMIM QURESHY

Young researchers working in the lab at CRRI

establishing value chains with two

private companies for marketing
of rice and rice-based value-added
products to ensure greater economic benefit for the women.
The farm women were competent enough to manage both their
farm and home efficiently. They
could be efficient drivers of national
agricultural growth and development, if they can be made sociallyempowered and technologically
competent through gender sensitive approaches, says Lipi. She had
also been in a project to identify
gender issues in technology generation and adoption in rice-based
production systems. We had conducted a study in five rice growing
districts, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack,
Balasore, Bargarh and Ganjam of
Odisha. An on-farm trial was conducted to evaluate selected drudgery-reducing implements with the
participation of 30 farm-women
in rice-based production systems.
We found that except threshing
and winnowing, all the production
activities were carried out in traditional methods. So on the basis of
identified issues, an on-farm trial
was conducted in Salipur cluster of
Cuttack district to evaluate selected
technologies keeping in mind the
womens perspectives in rice-based
production system, with four interventions namely, farmers practice
(where an intervention is developed
keeping in mind the usual practices
farmers adopt with regard to seeding, weeding and harvesting) (T1),
planting by transplanter with
hand weeding (T2), planting by
transplanter with mechanical
weeding by finger weeder (T3),
manual planting in rows with
hand weeding (T4). The farm
women favoured use of these
technologies and the feedback
helped us to recommend refinement of programmes
on farm implements for

women, she says.

She, however, feels, the participation of women in research
is lower than expected. This is an
area which has immense potential.
Challenges from the home front are
there for women in all spheres but
research could open new avenues,
which could bring about a revolution in the sector, she adds.
Mayabini Jena, principal scientist and head, division of crop protection, at the institute has been
attached to research ever since she
completed her PhD in Zoology from
Utkal University in 1986. She joined
CRRI, Cuttack in 1990 as a scientist through ARS and since then
has been into research in the area
of plant protection. She has been
instrumental in identifying 10 highly resistant donors against brown
plant hopper by screening about
2,000 genotypes in green house
conditions. She has also found 13
highly BPH (Brown Plant Hopper)
resistant breeding lines in the background of identified donor. She has
also contributed towards development of scented rice varieties CR
Sugandh Dhan 907, Poornabhog,
Nua Kalajeera, Nua Dhusara and
Nua Chinikamini. Another area of
her work is pest control she has
evolved effective insecticides for
the control of important rice insect
pests in relation to field applica-

tion as well as to the basic work of

persistent toxicity and immediate
knock down effect (an immediate
treatment to tackle pests).
Research was a fascination
for me. It was a long-term goal to
achieve excellence in research, and
today I am proud to be associated
with this field where opportunities
for recognition are many. Here,
there are more prospects than
constraints. For example, I have
worked with toxic substances all

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT FOR WOMEN TO GET

INTO RESEARCH PARTICULARLY IN THE
FIELD OF AGRICULTURE, AS MOST FARM
WORK THESE DAYS IS DONE BY WOMEN.
AS A WOMAN, I AM AT AN ADVANTAGE
TO MAKE THEM LISTEN TO ME AND
CONVINCE THEM LIPI DAS,
SENIOR SCIENTIST, DIVISION
OF SOCIAL SCIENCES, CRRI

my life but I have never felt any

danger as I was helped by my seniors at CRRI. In the initial days,
I would watch them handle toxic
substances and they would keep
me away till I learnt the tricks of
the trade. Now, I reprise the role
when youngsters join us, explains
Mayabini.
She feels, women prove better
researchers, provided they are
given the right kind of environment to work in. Physical strains
apart, women can handle research
work better than men, she says. I
come on holidays to nurture the
pests which are my subject of study,
while other scientists also come to
observe their fields. It is a 24-hour
job but you have the convenience
of flexibility. If you are an achiever,
your efforts will never go unnoticed
and there is no bossism in the field
of research, she adds.
Director of CRRI, Cuttack, T
Mohapatra, quite upbeat about the
women working at CRRI says, in
comparison to earlier times, now

women can be seen at most research institutes. We have quite a

few women scientists here who are
doing exceptionally well. The opportunities elsewhere are so many
that not only girls, even boys shy
away from entering a hard-working
arena like research, that too rice
cultivation. Research is a longterm process, says Mohapatra.
He says, Balancing both home and
work well, our scientists have come
up with very good materials. They
have been lone fighters like Barbara
McClintock (an American scientist,
whose revolutionary discovery of
jumping genes and many other
contributions to the field of genetics
earned her the Nobel Prize in 1983).
So, promoting them and identifying
potential researchers is important.
We want more women to be a part
of agricultural research; it will help
in the development of the field and
accelerate the realisation of development goals, he adds.
kasturi@newindian
express.com