Ludhiana, Sept. 9 -- The Ladhowal station of Borlaug Institute for South Asia (BISA) here is leveraging the recent floods to field-test its water-tolerant maize hybrids. The institute, a joint venture of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Mexico-based International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo or CIMMYT), is working on nine maize hybrids that are tolerant to waterlogging. Four of the experimental hybrids had been specifically developed for water-logging tolerance.

Situated just 200 metres from the Sutlej river, the BISA research fields were submerged under more than 400 mm of water after heavy rainfall this monsoon. Rather than viewing the flooding as a setback, res...