Rice centre sprouts new climate-resilient varieties

The Rice Research Centre under the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI), Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry is accelerating efforts to develop new climate-resilient rice varieties to help farmers in times of flood or drought.
Director of the Rice Research Centre, Dr Chanthakhone Boualaphanh, said the centre is now breeding rice varieties Xebangfay (XBF) 1, 3 and 4 in response to extreme weather conditions, which are occurring more frequently.
These varieties are developed for flood tolerance and can withstand being submerged for 21 days.
The centre has also researched 15 rice seed varieties to cope with harsh weather patterns, which it will distribute to farmers, and expand planted rice areas as part of the government’s targeted dry season cultivation area of 185,000 hectares.
Dr Chanthakhone said the centre would continue cooperation with development partners to enhance rice breeding by increasing the number of varieties available, especially in line with Laos’ rice seed conservation goals.
NAFRI officials reported that since 2007 it has set up a rice breeding programme to develop new climate-resilient rice varieties that are expected to reduce crop losses.
The programme breeds rice varieties for submergence tolerance, drought tolerance, aerobic varieties, direct seeding, and species that are lodging resistant, suitable for mechanised harvesting and are shatter resistant.
Since 1991, rice breeding efforts have imported varieties from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and Thai-IRRI. Since 1993, the programme has provided a total of 37 varieties to farmers.
The nation has faced prolonged dry spells followed by severe floods in some years.
Last year, floods destroyed rice fields which led to production losses of up to 40 percent while dry weather also affected yields with losses to late maturity varieties of up to 20 percent.
Insect pests (brown and green leafhoppers) and disease (blast and bacterial leaf blight) which also damage rice plants have been observed with more frequency.

By Ounkham Pimmata
(Latest Update January 3, 2020)