HERE’S one tip for the country’s rice farmers: “Do not use one and the same rice variety over and over again. That is, if you want to increase your yield.”
This advice was offered by a biotech expert of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice,) who emphasized that pests become immune when exposed to one and the same rice variety for a long time.
Thelma Padolina, chief of the PhilRice’s plant breeding and biotechnology division, said resistance of rice plants to pests decreases principally because of two reasons: one due to intensive cropping and two: the use of the same variety every season.
“If pests are continuously exposed to the same variety, these might evolve into more powerful types that would overcome the resistance of the varieties,” she said.
Padolina said not all outstanding traits are present in one rice variety such as high-yielding, resistant to pests, excellent grain and eating quality among others.
She said PhilRice breeders keep on improving varieties to help the farmers keep pace with the evolving pests and diseases, changing climatic conditions resulting in various stresses such as low and high temperature, submergence, salinity that reduces yield, and changing preferences of farmers, millers and consumers.
She said modern rice varieties yield higher than traditional ones as they are more efficient in absorbing nutrients and more effective in photosynthetic activities owing to plant physical traits such as short upright leaves and more tillers.
Many modern varieties, she said, are resistant to “biotic” and “abiotic” stresses. [PNA]
