Los Baños, The Philippines
June 4, 2009
Three new rice varieties designed
to help Filipino farmers grow more rice in difficult conditions
have been officially recommended for approval for commercial
cultivation in the Philippines and are expected to help the
Philippines become less dependent on rice imports.
Bred by the International Rice
Research Institute (IRRI), one variety is flood-tolerant,
one is drought-tolerant, and one is salt-tolerant.
“In the Philippines about 400,000 hectares of rice-growing land
is affected by salinity, and in any year up to 370,000 hectares
can be flood-affected,” said Dr. David Mackill, program leader
and plant breeder at IRRI. “Both these conditions can completely
destroy a rice crop or decrease yield.
“Yield is also reduced by drought that occurs in upland and
rain-fed areas where rice is not irrigated. Having rice
varieties that can cope with difficult growing conditions such
as flood, drought, and salinity will be particularly helpful for
poor farmers who rely on marginal land to grow their rice.
“Rice-growing land that has limited productivity will become
more productive when these new rice varieties are used – this
will help Filipino farmers produce more rice,” he added.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United
Nations, every year Filipinos eat an average of more than 100
kilograms of rice per person. With population increasing, demand
for rice continues to grow in the Philippines, which is already
the world’s biggest rice importer.
“The development of these rice varieties demonstrates how IRRI
and its partners can increase the yield of rice through
research,” said Dr. Mackill.
“Ongoing investment in rice research, breeding, and extension
will help to increase rice yields and improve the sustainability
of rice production to help avoid future rice price increases.”
The new rice varieties have been tested in field conditions and
evaluated by the Rice Varietal Improvement Group through the
National Cooperative Testing program of the
Philippine Rice Research
Institute (PhilRice).
“The Rice Technical Working Group of the National Seed Industry
Council will now recommend the varieties for official approval,
which is expected to occur sometime in late 2009,” said Ms.
Thelma Padolina, NCT national coordinator at PhilRice.
As a nonprofit organization, IRRI provides the seed for these
new varieties at no cost to PhilRice.
PhilRice has already started distributing small amounts of seed
to farmers for further adaptation tests. Seed increase of
breeder and foundation seeds is now being done by IRRI and
PhilRice. When officially approved, basic seed will be available
to seed growers and selected farmers that can cater to other
farmers. It is also expected that seed exchange among farmers in
the target areas will be active with the new technologies.
IRRI and PhilRice continue to work together and more new rice
varieties especially designed for the Philippines are expected
to be released soon.
This research is financially supported by the Federal Government
of Germany, the CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme, Ministry
of Foreign Affairs of Japan, and the Rockefeller Foundation.
IRRI-bred rice varieties for the Philippines
Three new rice varieties designed
to help Filipino farmers grow more rice in difficult conditions
have been officially recommended for approval for release in the
Philippines. Developed by the International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI), one variety is flood-tolerant variety, one is
drought-tolerant, and one is salt-tolerant.
The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) has already
started distributing small amounts of seed of the new varieties
to farmers for further adaptation tests. Seed increase of
breeder and foundation seeds is now being done by IRRI and
PhilRice. When officially approved, basic seed will be available
to seed growers and selected farmers that can cater to other
farmers. It is also expected that seed exchange among farmers in
the target areas will be active with the new technologies.
Each variety has been tested in field conditions and evaluated
through the National Cooperative Testing program of PhilRice.
The Rice Technical Working Group will now recommend the
varieties for official release to the Technical Secretariat and
then the Council Secretariat of the National Seed Industry
Council will officially approve the varieties, which is expected
to occur sometime in late 2009.
Salt-tolerant rice
In the Philippines, around 400,000 hectares of coastal
rice-growing land is affected by salinity from sea water.
Farmers often don’t plant this region because of the risk of
crop failure, but, with the new salt-tolerant variety
IR63307-4B-4-3, they can now use this land to grow rice.
Under high salt stress, high-yielding Philippine rice varieties
typically produce less than a ton of rice per hectare. Under the
same conditions, IR63307-4B-4-3 can produce 2.5 to 3.5 tons of
rice per hectare. However, in the absence of salinity, this
salt-tolerant variety can yield 6.5 to 7.0 tons per hectare.
In addition to the salt-tolerance trait built into
IR63307-4B-4-3, proper crop management is essential to achieving
high grain yield in salt-affected soils. This includes water
management through strong and effective levies to check
sea-water ingression, planting of older seedlings (to avoid salt
damage when the plants are young and at a sensitive stage), and
suitable nutrient management. The extra costs of these practices
are readily offset by the value of the overall increase in
productivity.
The total potential of increased rice production from
salt-affected areas in the Philippines could be 0.8 to 1.0
million tons per annum and the new rice variety, IR63307-4B-4-3,
could contribute substantially if grown across all of the
Philippines’ salt-prone lands. In Bangladesh, the same variety
was released in 2007 as BRRI dhan 47 and it has been widely
adopted by farmers, who are undertaking large-scale seed
production to fulfill demand as word spreads about its yield
advantages.
IRRI’s rice research on salt-tolerance is financially supported
by the Federal Government of Germany and the CGIAR Generation
Challenge Programme. It is done in collaboration with national
partners especially from South and Southeast Asia.
Flood-tolerant rice
Rice is one of the few crops that thrive in wet
agricultural environments. Rice seed can even germinate in
saturated soil, but most rice plants will be seriously damaged
or die if they remain totally under-water for more than a week.
Around 370,000 hectares of rice-growing land in the Philippines
experiences flooding, causing average crop losses of about
250,000 tons every year. Severe typhoon activity in 2006
increased flooding of rice crops in the Philippines and an
estimated 228,350 tons of rice was lost due to flooding that
year. Flooding most commonly occurs in poorer areas that lack
proper flood control infrastructure.
The length of time rice is totally submerged during flooding
largely determines the amount of crop loss. IRRI’s new
flood-tolerant rice for the Philippines, currently called
IR64-Sub1, can tolerate more than two weeks under water. The
same conditions would typically reduce yields of IR64-Sub1’s
counterpart rice variety without submergence tolerance, IR64, to
less than 1 ton per hectare, yet IR64-Sub1 can yield nearly 5
tons per hectare.
IR64 is a popular variety of rice that is widely grown across
the Philippines. IR64-Sub1 is exactly the same as IR64 except it
also has the SUB1 gene that confers its tolerance of flooding.
The SUB1 gene was discovered by researchers at IRRI and the
University of California, Davis, and it has since been bred into
many rice varieties.
In early 2009, the first rice varieties with the SUB1 gene were
approved forrelease in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh.
IRRI’s rice research on flood-tolerance is financially supported
by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan and the Federal
Government of Germany.
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Drought-tolerant rice
Around 1,180,000 hectares of cultivated area in the Philippines
is under an upland rice ecosystem in which farmers follow a
direct-seeding method of rice cultivation and the rice survives
solely on rainfall for its water requirement. All of this upland
area is prone to drought.
Even a week without rain in upland areas of the Philippines may
be enough time for rice plants to start suffering stress from a
lack of water. As a result, the rice plants will be less
productive.
IRRI’s new drought-tolerant rice variety for the Philippines,
IR74371-54-1-1, can yield up to 10% more than standard varieties
in seasons with good rainfall and it provides 0.5 to 0.8 tons
per hectare yield advantage when an area is exposed to drought.
Farmers in drought-prone areas typically don’t choose to add
costly inputs, such as fertilizer, because, if drought occurs,
they risk losing their crop and the cost of the fertilizer. A
drought-tolerant rice variety will give them added security to
invest in their rice crops to get higher yields.
Farmers who have tested IR74371-54-1-1 have been impressed with
the variety and its versatility to be transplanted, dry seeded,
or wet seeded. It also has good grain and eating quality.
In 2009, another IRRI line, IR74371-70-1-1, has been recommended
for release in two highly drought prone provinces of eastern
India.
This research is financially supported by the Rockefeller
Foundation and the CGIAR Generation Challenge Programme. |
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