November 8th

Bells ringing and birds singing at 5 am. Yoga and meditation on the balcony overlooking the temple. A walk through the rice fields with my mother where we see two green parrots, a brilliantly-colored blue and red kingfisher and a black and white bird with a fish in its long beak. The birds darts among the 80 rice varieties being tested here.

One variety has been bred for erect flag leaves that extend above the ripening grain to protect it from the birds. Another has been genetically improved for dwarfism so that it will not fall over and spill its grain into the paddy when mature. And then there are the thick stands of the three new Sub1 varieties, each plant heavy with full panicles of rice. Their parents (Samba, IR64 and Swarna) that lack the Sub1 locus have not faired so well. Only 3-4 plants survived the 15 day flood.

In India, 70% of the farmers cultivate 1 hectare or less. These small and marginal farmers are benefitting from the work here at the Cuttack Rice Research Institute and the international collaboration that has brought our team together. They are also benefiting from innovative approaches being developed here that integrate the most modern varieties into diverse cropping systems.

In one trial, an acre is planted to a creative mixture of food crops. A pond was dug to grow low-yielding deep-water rice and fish during the wet season. Once harvested, the fish is eaten and two more crops of a genetically improved high yielding irrigated rice are grown. On the banks of this small farm grow, pineapples, coriander, peppers, cowpea, bananas, mango, and papaya. They also grow bamboo that can be sold for a good price. The soil is fertilized with less synthetic fertilizer than many of the rice farms in Asia because the a cow and some chickens provide compost for fertilizer. The organic fertilizer is supplemented with a small amount of synthetic fertilizers toenhance the productivity of the farm. A husband and wife work the land and sell the produce- a real life test of the sustainability of the system.

This small model farm may be the future of agriculture- by integrating a diverse array of crops and the most modern seed with the best organic methods daily food security can be enhanced. If this mixture of crops produces well throughout the year the farmers and their families will thrive.

In 1996 when my laboratory first began this work with Dave Mackill, I could not have known that the project would take me to these fields in Cuttack. We finally isolated the Sub1 gene that we had sought for so many years in 2004. Now, thanks to an international team of breeders, it has been introduced into 6 varieties popular with farmers in India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. The gene is now on its own journey in the hands of breeders and farmers. I feel as if my child has grown up and developed his own, successful life.

Later today we will fly to Dehli where I will give a lecture at the University of Dehli. Our host Anil Grover, Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Delhi, later tells me “It is mind-blowing how one gene is doing so many wonders, particularly when everybody says abiotic stresses can not be handled with genetic engineering, it is just a matter of getting the right gene, following the right approach.” After dinner with our Indian colleagues we will begin the long journey home.

Goodbye gentle India. Namaste.