Coimbatore: Short duration paddy crops, year-long flowering Star Jasmine, and a wilt-resistant banana are some of the new crop varieties released by Tamil Nadu Agricultural University for this Pongal. The 14 new varieties include rice, millet, castor, garlic and groundnut.Of the 14 crops, two are rice varieties. Rice ADT 53, a short duration variety, will produce yield in 105 days. It is suitable for cultivation as transplanted rice. A communication from TNAU said the variety would give an average yield of 6,340 kg per hectare. The variety is moderately resistant to blast, sheath rot, stem borer and leaf folder. The other rice variety, Rice VGD 1, is semi-dwarf with 130 days duration. It is similar to Seeragasamba and can be used to make briyani. The mean yield of the crop was 5,850 kg per hectare, the communication said.Of millet, Little Millet ATL 1, a rain-fed samai variety, is recommended for cultivation in Dharmapuri, Tiruvannamalai, Vellore, Salem and Krishnagiri. The mean yield of the variety is 1,590 kg per hectare. In oilseeds, one new variety each in groundnut and castor has been released. Groundnut BSR 2 has an oil content of 46.5%, and is moderately resistant to late leaf spot and rust diseases, while Castor YTP 1 is suitable for annual and perennial cultivation with a mean yield of 1,460 kg per hectare per year, the release said.Among horticulture crops, one new variety each of bottle gourd, garlic, potatoes and three varieties of bananas were released. The banana varieties – Kaveri Kalki, Kaveri Saba and Kaveri Sugantham - were from the National Banana Research Centre, Trichy. Of these, Kaveri Sugantham is resistant to Fusarium wilt.In addition, Kadamba tree, suitable for pulp wood, plywood and splints production, was released. Also, Star Jasmine CO 1, a year-round flowering jasmine variety suitable to be cultivated in all jasmine-growing regions of Tamil Nadu, was released. It has recorded the highest yield of 7.40 tonne per hectare and the flowers are easy to pluck and are suitable for string-making, the release said.

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