Los Baños, The Philippines
October 12, 2007
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An IRRI scientist
with the 'waterproof' rice either side of him |
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Imelda V. Abano.
SciDev.Net
Farmers should soon have access to a new strain of
flood-resistant rice, say scientists.
The development was discussed at the 3rd steering committee
meeting of the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium of the
International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI) in Hanoi, Vietnam last week (8–9 October).
A large portion of Asian rice land is located in deltas and
low-lying areas that are at risk from flooding during the
monsoon season, and climate change intensifies these risks, said
Reiner Wassmann, coordinator of the Rice and Climate Change
Consortium of IRRI.
Crop scientists estimate that annual flooding leads to losses
worth US$1 billion across south and South-East Asia.
Wassmann told SciDev.Net that a flood-resistant rice variety
called Swarna Submergence 1 should reach farmers by 2009. The
plant carries the sub1a gene that enables it to be submerged for
up to 17 days.
Scientists led by David Mackill of IRRI and Pamela Ronald of the
US-based University of California are working on the
flood-resistant rice and are currently conducting field trials
in several Asian countries.
According to IRRI, global rice prices have hit record highs
while supply has plummeted to its lowest levels in a decade.
Around 60 international rice scientists from 13 countries
gathered at the meeting to discuss improved rice varieties and
innovative crop management techniques to help farmers address
problems of growing rice in a changing climate, along with
scarce water resources.
"We acknowledged the urgency of developing new varieties that
can cope with flooding as well as higher temperatures because
rice production may become unfavourable in some countries,
especially vulnerable regions that are affected by sea level
rise," Wassmann said.
Also at the conference, IRRI and the Vietnam Academy of
Agricultural Sciences presented a study showing that low lift
irrigation pumps — where water is pumped onto land difficult to
serve by a gravity canal system — and drip irrigation can help
to reduce water use between 15–20 per cent during the dry
season, while boosting productivity by up to 15 per cent.
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