Question

Semi dwarf rice variety of IR-8 was developed in
A)Taiwan
B)Philippines
C)Japan
D)China

Answer 1

In 1967, when a 29-year-old Nekkanti Subba Rao sowed a semi dwarf kind of rice in over 2,000 hectares in Atchanta, West Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh, he had no concept that the grain he was sowing would start the primary green revolution. The grain was IR8, a rice variety that would produce the maximum amount as seven tonnes of rice per hectare, while the standard seeds could produce only two tonnes per hectare.

Complete answer:
In the 1950s, Asia was on the brink of famine. Food was scarce and countless people were in peril of starvation. India was importing huge quantities of food grains from the US to feed its growing millions in a very manner that was famously described as “ship-to-mouth” sustenance. By 1960, the International Rice Research Institute was established with an urgent mission: to develop a high-yielding rice variety that's immune to attack by major insects and pests.
Peter Jenning and Henry Beachell, who joined as rice breeders at the IRRI, began experiments with rice crossing. The team tried as many as 38 crosses involving rice varieties from China, Taiwan and Indonesia.

It was from the third generation of a cross between two dwarf varieties, China’s Dee Geo Woo Gen (DGWG) and Indonesia’s Peta, that the store of IR8-288-3 was selected.
The rice was first tested in 1966 in the Philippines, where the agri-research firm was based. The results were amazing. From 88 kg of pure seeds sown, 71 tonnes were harvested.

Dr. Surajit Kumar De Datta, a young Indian agronomist of IRRI, played a crucial role in demonstrating the high yield potential of the variability. In 1996, he examined the response of the rice variety under various fertilizer conditions to work out maximum yields under the simplest management possible. He was amazed with the results – the IR8 rice produced around 5 tons per hectare with no fertilizer and rose to almost 10 tons with 120 kg of nitrogen per hectare. That was 10 times the normal rice yield.The world responded when Dr. Datta’s study results were published. Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos read about the new rice and came to IRRI to see for himself. On November 28, 1966, the IRRI seed committee re-christened IR8-288-3 as IR8 and officially released it. A ray of hope for people across the continent, IRB was quickly dubbed the “miracle rice”.

However, India was predominantly a rice-eating nation – rice was cultivated in every region, from the hilly terrains of north and north-east to the coasts of south. With the specter of famine, shortages, and starvation hanging over the sub-continent, IR8 came as a boon to India.
Nekkanti Subba Rao was the first farmer who planted and widely shared seeds of IR8 in India in 1967. The next year, IR8 was planted on 1,600 hectares in his village and the rest, as they say, was history. IR8 seeds were soon being distributed throughout the country.
Today, Subba Rao is affectionately called “Mr. IR8” and “Dhaan Pandit” in his community, due to his huge success in multiplying IR8 seeds. Incidentally, this pioneering farmer has also been instrumental in promoting and distributing Swarna-Sub1, a flood-tolerant variety of rice developed in 1979.

Hence, the correct answer is option (B)

Note: Thanks to its short growth duration, pest-resistance and high yield, IR8 quickly became popular with Indian farmers. Being a dwarf variety, it could also withstand wind action unlike the traditional tall paddy. At a recent event to mark the 50th anniversary of the IR8 variety, eminent agricultural scientist Prof M.S. Swaminathan recalled how a farmer in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruvannamalai district, K N Ganesan, had named his son Irettu after IR8. The farmer’s yields had risen from two tonnes per hectare to 16 tonnes per hectare after using IR8.