Scientists at the University of Hyderabad are exploring whether the natural climate resilience found in foxtail millet can help improve rice production under water-constrained conditions.

Researchers from the university's Department of Plant Sciences identified a gene in foxtail millet associated with its ability to tolerate adverse environmental conditions and introduced it into rice as part of research aimed at addressing drought-like conditions linked to erratic rainfall.

The research is being led by Dr M. Muthamilarasan, founder of the Millet Lab at the University of Hyderabad. According to the report, the project received approximately ₹80 lakh in central government financial assistance, and the research team has filed a patent application.

The scientists initially worked with Pusa Basmati, a rice variety they identified as suitable for the experiments because of its relatively lower water requirement.

The project also involved scientific inputs from researchers associated with ICRISAT and ICAR-Indian Institute of Millets Research, while a Delhi University researcher working on Pusa Basmati contributed to the effort.

Muthamilarasan reported that the modified Pusa Basmati lines required substantially less water than conventional expectations and that preliminary experiments were sufficiently encouraging for the researchers to undertake cultivation at a larger scale. The team subsequently introduced the foxtail millet gene into Sonamasuri and IR-64 rice, where experiments were also reported to have produced positive results.

The development illustrates an important emerging dimension of millet research. Millets are frequently promoted directly as crops capable of functioning under comparatively challenging climatic conditions. Genomics research is now also investigating the biological mechanisms underlying those characteristics and whether useful genes and pathways can inform improvement in other crops.

Foxtail millet is particularly valuable as a model for studying stress biology because of its relatively compact genome, short lifecycle and adaptation to challenging growing environments. Modern millet research increasingly employs genomics, gene editing, multi-omics and other molecular approaches to understand and improve characteristics associated with climate resilience.

The University of Hyderabad also has ongoing research specifically involving targeted gene editing in foxtail millet, including a government-listed project led by Muthamilarasan examining reduced phytic acid and improved micronutrient bioavailability.

For the latest rice project, the next important stage will be performance outside controlled research conditions. The researchers plan to distribute developed rice lines to farmers in selected districts of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu without charge and analyse their performance.

The results should therefore be presented as promising research findings rather than evidence of a commercially established drought-resistant rice variety.

Nevertheless, the research demonstrates how millet genetics could have implications extending beyond millet cultivation itself. By identifying biological mechanisms that allow foxtail millet to cope with environmental stress, scientists may gain new tools for developing crops better adapted to increasingly uncertain water availability.