Mustard greens cultivation all set to get boost with introduction of new variety

The mustard greens (Rai) cultivation is all set to get a boost with the introduction of its new variety that is much better in taste and gives more yields.

The new improved variety of mustard greens seeds by the scientists from Horticulture and Forestry University Ranichauri campus. The new seed was released by Ajit Kumar Karnatak Vice-Chancelor Uttarakhand University of Horticulture and Forestry in function held at Ranichauri campus.

The VC praised the efforts of the scientist and inspected the variety grown here by the scientists. The seed has been developed by the scientists after research of over six years and the flavour of this variety of mustard green will be less pungent and the production will be twice as much as the normal mustard green seed thus doubling the income of the farmers. This variety has been approved by the Central Variety Release Committee of the Government of India for use for north-eastern, western Himalayas and Andaman and Nicobar regions of India. 

So far the taste of the mustard green vegetable which is rich in nutrition was bitter which led to farmers staying away from it. So as to tackle this problem, six years ago, Tejpal Singh Bisht,  AC Mishra, Lakshmi Rawat and Roshan Lal Bhatt, the scientists from Ranichauri campus started the research work on the new species of mustard green under the All India Coordinated Vegetable Research project.

With the hard work of the scientist the new species of mustard greens was identified. Thereafter, the new species was tested at various centres in India and it was approved by the Variety Release Committee of the central government in the areas including the north eastern States (Sikkim , Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Arunanchal Pradesh) and West Himalayan States (Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand) as well as the area of Andaman and Nicobar. Scientists Tejpal Singh Bisht and Lakshmi Rawat said that 700 quintals per hectare of mustard greens can be produced from this species in the Himalayan region. It’s variety name is Kedar Ranichauri Rye (KRR-1).

Friday, 29 January 2021 | PNS | New Tehri