Author(s):

Soni Ghimire

Abstract: Jumli Marshi, an indigenous rice variety of Nepal, is grown at the highest elevation of the world at an altitude of 3050 masl. The International Rice Research Institution has confirmed the presence of cold tolerant gene in this variety that supports it to thrive well in cold temperate condition. This is the only variety of rice that was grown in Jumla few years back. This variety is very susceptible to blast. It has been in very critical situation with an increasing incidence of blast resulting massive loss in the yield for last some years. So, need of varietal diversity of cold tolerant rice to substitute the single local one in Jumla was visualized long ago. Keeping this in mind, NARC released 2 other varieties with cold tolerant genes- Chandanath-1 and Chandanath-3 which are red and white rice respectively. These varieties have been brought to meet the demand of farmers after long concentrated research efforts. These new varieties have been found suitable for Jumla as they are high yielding, blast disease resistant, cold tolerant giving high rice recovery. Chandanath-3 is becoming more popular in Jumla and its yield increase is more than 50% as compared to Jumli Marshi, but problem regarding it is that it doesn’t last longer after eating. People prefer to eat Jumli Marshi as it has high nutritional value, soaks up milk and ghee and becomes sweet in taste.

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