Asian rice scientists have developed flood-tolerant rice varieties, according to the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) based in Los Banos, Laguna.
IRRI officials said farmers cultivating rice on 12 million hectares of flood-prone areas in India are planting flood-tolerant rice varieties at unprecedented rates due to faster seed multiplication, targeted dissemination, and linking of partners.
Dr. Umesh Singh, senior scientist at the IRRI, said, “long before, we only provided and field-tested IRRI rice lines that were tolerant of flooding.”
“Now, we assist government agencies and private seed companies to multiply and distribute seeds to farmers at a faster pace,” Singh said.
Field-testing a rice variety normally takes four to five years before it is released and another two to three years before it reaches farmers.
Through targeted dissemination, IRRI is helping state governments identify specific flood-prone areas where seeds of the submergence-tolerant variety can be distributed, without having to wait until it is multiplied and distributed en masse.
IRRI, celebrating its 50th year of conducting rice research, has been working with India’s national and state governments, nonprofit organizations, farmers’ organizations, research institutions, and public and private seed companies to promote Swarna-Sub1, a flood-tolerant version of the widely grown Swarna variety.
“Even before the seeds are released, different research institutions are already multiplying these seeds,” Singh explained.
“Immediately after release, we encourage state governments, as they distribute the seeds to other channels for large-scale multiplication, to also disseminate the seeds directly to farmers in target areas. Farmers need not wait for two to three years for mass distribution,” Singh said.
“Swarna-Sub1 incorporates the SUB1 gene into the Indian mega-variety Swarna, making it resilient to flooding of up to 17 days while retaining the desirable traits of the original variety,“ said Dr. David Mackill, another senior scientist at IRRI who helped identify the SUB1 gene and develop Sub1 varieties.
“Under submergence, Swarna-Sub1 provides a yield advantage of about one ton per hectare over Swarna,” Dr. Mackill added. “Since this is an improved version of an existing variety, scientists only had to test its tolerance of submergence, lessening the time for field-testing by a year.”
“Swarna-Sub1, released in August 2009, is the first submergence-tolerant, high-yielding rice variety in India,” said Dr. Singh. “It was released in record time and is spreading at an unprecedented speed.”
Swarna took 25 years after its release to be planted on six million hectares, reaching its current “mega” variety status. (PNA Features)
