Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia

Vol. 10 No. 3 Sept. 2017

Nigeria releases AfricaRice “flood-tolerant” rice varieties Ramaiah Venuprasad/AfricaRice

All photos by AfricaRice

Mature plant of FARO 66

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Ligule of FARO 66

n a major breakthrough for Nigeria, which undergoes recurrent and devastating flooding, two high-yielding flood-tolerant rice varieties developed by the Africa Rice Center, FARO 66 and FARO 67, have been officially approved for cultivation. These flood-tolerant varieties were selected based on farmers’ rankings and results of on-station, multilocation, and on-farm trials conducted in partnership with the National Cereals Research Institute (NCRI) and the National Rice and Maize Center (NRMC). “For the first time in Nigeria, vulnerable rice farmers in flood-prone areas will have access to this powerful innovation,” said Dr. Ramaiah Venuprasad, AfricaRice lowland rice breeder, who led the team that achieved this feat. Rainfed lowlands occupy more than 70% of the total rice area in Nigeria and are prone to recurrent flooding caused by heavy rainfall or overflow of nearby rivers. Yield losses resulting from flooding range from 10% to total crop loss. In 2012, when Nigeria experienced the worst flooding in 40 years, floods reduced rice production by about 22%. Flooding is expected to be increasingly problematic under global warming, as studies by AfricaRice on future rice climates project massive increases in overall precipitation in north and northwest Nigeria.

Mature plant of FARO 67

Ligule of FARO 67

Most rice varieties can become severely damaged or killed within a week of severe flooding. “Depending on the intensity of flooding, it can reduce yield, it can prolong the growth duration, and, in extreme cases, it can cause total crop loss,” said Dr. Venuprasad. “We have seen this happen in many places in Nigeria.” Dr. Venuprasad explained that the only possible solution to overcome this problem is the use of floodtolerant varieties. His team used marker-assisted breeding to introduce into popular Nigerian rice varieties the SUB1 gene, which confers to rice plants the ability to tolerate complete short-term submergence. This technique has been successfully used in Asia to upgrade popular Asian rice varieties with submergence tolerance. For instance, Swarna-Sub1 (popularly named “scuba rice”) is the first submergence-tolerant highyielding rice variety developed in Asia. It was released in 2009. More than 1.3 million farmers in India now grow it. Thanks to the achievement by Dr. Venuprasad’s research team, rice farmers in Africa can now benefit from the SUB1 technology. Dr. Venuprasad explained that initial efforts to introduce the SUB1 varieties directly from Asia were unsuccessful as these varieties were not locally adaptable. AfricaRice therefore decided to upgrade Continued next page... 1

Nigeria releases... from page 1

locally adapted popular rice varieties for submergence tolerance. Highlighting the advantages of the floodtolerant varieties developed for Nigeria, Dr. Venuprasad said, “Compared with their parents, in addition to submergence tolerance, they have higher yield potential and suitable growth duration and height.” Like their parents, they have good grain quality with medium-long slender grains and are moderately tolerant of iron toxicity. Under submergence, FARO 66 can yield about 80 times higher than its parent, FARO 52, which cannot survive this condition. “This makes FARO 66 a clear alternative for planting in flood-prone areas,” said Dr. Venuprasad. Even under nonsubmergence conditions, FARO 66 showed a yield advantage of 6−11% in multilocation and on-farm trials. It matures a week earlier than its parent. Similarly, FARO 67 can yield at least 10 times higher than its parent, FARO 60, under submergence. Under nonsubmergence conditions, FARO 67 showed a yield advantage of 10−29% in on-station, multilocation,

What’s in this issue…

GENDER CORNER

STRASA in the NEWS

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and on-farm trials. It was favored by farmers for its height and larger quantity of biomass that can be used as livestock feed or as mulch to improve crop yields. The flood-tolerant varieties are thus a result of precision breeding and are not genetically modified organisms. As they provide farmers with protection against short-term flooding and serve as a type of “insurance policy,” farmers can feel reassured and invest in agricultural inputs such as fertilizer, leading to higher rice yields. Dr. Venuprasad gratefully acknowledges that partnership with national agricultural research systems such as NCRI and NRMC and with international institutes, such as the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), has been a key factor in the development of the floodtolerant varieties for Nigeria. The work on developing the flood-tolerant varieties for Nigeria was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation-funded Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia (STRASA) project led by IRRI. The Asian SUB1 lines from IRRI were used as donor lines of the SUB1 gene as part of this project. The testing of the flood-tolerant varieties in Nigeria was supported by the United States Agency for International Development-funded “Seed scaling” project, the African Development Bank-funded “Support to agricultural research for development of strategic crops in Africa” project, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundationfunded “Rapid mobilization of alleles for rice cultivar improvement in sub-Saharan Africa” project. The main challenge now is to produce enough seed of these varieties and get those seeds quickly into the hands of Nigerian farmers. “There is already a lot of interest in getting seed of the flood-tolerant varieties,” said Dr. Venuprasad. A roadmap to multiply and distribute seeds to farmers with the help of government agencies and private seed companies is being developed. The potential for impact of these flood-tolerant varieties is huge in Nigeria, which is the largest producer of rice in West Africa and the second-largest importer of rice in the world. Rice is an important food security crop as well as an essential cash crop in the country. The submergence-tolerant rice varieties are also being tested through the Africa-wide Rice Breeding Task Force for their adaptability to other African countries that are flood-prone. Five potential flood-tolerant varieties are under testing in Madagascar. Attaining self-sufficiency in rice production is an important goal of many African countries, including Nigeria. These flood-tolerant varieties can contribute to achieving this goal by boosting rice production and helping reduce dependence on costly rice imports.

BRRI dhan78: first dual-tolerant (2-in-1) variety under STRASA released in Bangladesh Akhlasur Rahman, A.S.M. Masuduzzaman, and R.K. Singh

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RRI dhan78 has been developed from an IRRIderived line that has blood of salt tolerance (Cheriviruppu and FL478) and submergence (SwarnaSub1) donors. Subsequently, this line was selected through pedigree selection followed by yield and adaptive trials in the coastal saline zone of Bangladesh. This line was further evaluated under dual stress of salinity (~6.0 dS/m) with 10 days of submergence at BRRI, and showed >90% survival. This line was finally BRRI-Bangladesh/ selected and recommended for Fig. 1. BRRI dhan78 in farmers’ fields during seedling stage in A. Rahman coastal region of Khulna. release as a variety (BRRI dhan78) for the transplanted aman season where coastal tidal salinity in Salient features of BRRI dhan78: conjunction with submergence is a severe problem (Fig. 1). This variety showed approximately 0.5−0.7 t/ha higher • Developed through hybridization followed by yield than BRRI dhan41 and it matures 7−10 days earlier marker-assisted and pedigree selection. than BRRI dhan41 with acceptable grain quality (high amylose: 25.2%; medium slender grain, fluffy cooked • Dual (salinity + submergence) tolerance: higher rice), which may generate a positive impact for farmers’ tolerance at 6−8 dS/m (whole-life) salinity + 10−12 livelihood in the coastal zone through faster adoption days of submergence. where salinity with submergence creates enormous problems in rice production (Fig. 2). • Attractive phenotype, 7−10 days earlier than BRRI dhan41. •

Medium-tall stature, which is important for the coastal zone.

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Nonshattering grain; thus, harvest loss is minimum.

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Medium slender grain, which is a preferable trait in the country.

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Higher yield potential of 3.5−6.8 t/ha depending on the level of salinity and submergence.

Fig. 2. BRRI dhan78 at maturity stage. BRRI-Bangladesh/A. Rahman

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Gender Corner

Understanding gendered modalities for sustainable adoption of stresstolerant rice varieties in Odisha Ranjitha Puskur and Mathilde Thonon

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espite a rapid decrease in its poverty rate during the past decade, Odisha still remains among the poorest states in India. A focus on social components such as gender, ethnicity, or location reveals uneven progress with regard to the state’s social and economic growth. Poverty rates for rural women and scheduled tribes show the weakest signs of improvement. Social inclusion for poverty eradication has yet to reach its full potential. Sixty percent of the state’s rural poor are engaged in agriculture, in which women represent a significant proportion. Agricultural growth is hardly taking off with only a 0.9% GDP increase between 2010 and 2015. In addition, climate-induced events such as droughts are intensifying and jeopardizing a state that is still dependent on rainfall. Given Odisha’s structural, social, and climatic challenges, the introduction of stress-tolerant rice varieties represents a good opportunity for the socioeconomic development of Indian farmers. Beyond the need for more resilient varieties, a study being conducted in the state is trying to unravel the subtleties and modalities for their adoption. With a main emphasis on gender disparities, the program intends to understand the influence of other intersecting social and economic factors such as age, economic class, caste, and location, among others. In 2016, a survey was conducted in five districts with 1,500 sample households, including some that received stresstolerant rice varieties (STRVs) in 2014 and others that did not. A preliminary analysis of the data revealed some useful insights. They will be complemented by qualitative data to unpack the subtleties of gender dynamics, lead to a better targeting, and enhance the project’s impact. Who makes the decision? For all households, a focus on decision-making dynamics reveals that joint decisions between the wife and husband or husband-made decisions are the most recurring cases for crop and variety choice, including STRVs. Wives rarely have the final say, sometimes surpassed by other family members in making a choice (Fig. 1).

What drives varietal choice? Among the 750 households provided with Sahbhagi and Swarna-Sub1 varieties in 2014, 84% and 82%, respectively, 4

chose to continue growing these varieties in the following year. Good cooking quality, improved yields, and ability to resist abiotic stress were the most cited traits that induced these households to grow these varieties. Yet, within adopters of both varieties, 22% ceased growing the Sahbhagi variety and 34% stopped using Swarna-Sub1 after a year (Fig. 2 ). Challenges for sustained use of STRVs In the study area, restricted accessibility to and availability of seed are the most recurring and common constraints mentioned by respondents who discontinued using stress-tolerant rice varieties (Figs 3 and 4, below). Investing in the development of seed systems that can provide good-quality and affordable seed at the right time to poor and vulnerable farmers in remote locations is critical for ensuring benefits to Odisha’s farmers if we have to make a dent in poverty. A multipronged strategy might be in order to address this challenge. STRASA is working with government and nongovernment partners and women’s self-help groups (SHGs) to develop community-based informal seed systems for STRVs. Strategies also need to be developed to engage private seed dealers to reach out to women and poor farmers in the unreached areas through engaging rural youth and women in the seed supply chain.

New India-IRRI partnership to boost South Asia’s rice sector Rona Azucena/IRRI Communication

The Memorandum of Agreement for the establishment of the IRRI South Asia Regional Center (ISARC) was signed by IRRI Director General Matthew Morell (left) and DAC&FW Secretary S.K. Pattanayak (right). With them is Minister Radha Mohan Singh (Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare).

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EW DELHI, India (2 August 2017) – The government of India and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) further bolstered their partnership to ensure food and nutrition security and capacity development in the South Asian region. A Memorandum of Agreement was signed on 2 August in Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi, by IRRI Director General Matthew Morell and Hon. Secretary S.K. Pattanayak of the Indian Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers’ Welfare. The MOA signing preceded the 12 July approval of the Union Cabinet, which is chaired by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, for the establishment of the IRRI South Asia Regional Center (ISARC) in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. “While IRRI has historically helped India to meet its overall food security needs through the Green Revolution high-yielding rice varieties such as IR8, the challenge now is to deliver increased livelihoods for farmers through increasing the value of rice, and increasing the well-being of farmers and consumers through enhanced nutrition outcomes. This agreement opens up more exciting collaborative activities in developing higher-yielding and more nutritious rice varieties that also meet the eating preferences of

IRRI-India/R. Azucena

consumers,” said Dr. Morell. “It is important that new and improved rice varieties also possess superior grain quality that adds value through meeting domestic and export market expectations to further improve the lives of farmers who rely on rice for their livelihood and sustenance.” In an official statement by the Indian Press Information Bureau, ISARC will be the first international center in eastern India. The center will drive initiatives that focus holistically on the rice value chain in the country. ISARC is designed to provide a regional facility that supports research collaboration, training, and service provision to institutions, scientists, and other stakeholders from India and other South Asian and African nations. The center will house a modern and sophisticated research facility that aims to develop higher-yielding and more nutritious rice varieties. The center will be managed by IRRI and work commences immediately with the objective of commissioning the Center within 6 months. (http://irri. org/news/media-releases/)

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IRRI and NRRI jointly organized Training of Trainers on Quality Seed Production and Storage in Rice Deepti Saksena and Manzoor H. Dar

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n initiative taken by IRRI for “Increasing the Production of Rice-Based Cropping Systems and Farmers’ Income” in Odisha with the support of the state government involves strengthening seed systems to enhance the adoption and seed quality of stress-tolerant rice varieties. The major challenges faced by rice farmers include limited access to quality seeds. To overcome this problem and to generate a cadre of resource persons, a “Training of Trainers on Quality Seed Production and Storage in Rice” was jointly organized by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and National Rice Research Institute (NRRI) at NRRI, Cuttack, during 22-23 and 25-26 September 2017 in two batches. The objective of this training was to improve the capacity and knowledge of extension and agricultural development officers, seed growers, and seed dealers for strengthening seed systems, which includes faster adoption and use of quality seeds of new stress-tolerant varieties. Seventy representatives (men and women) that included officers from the Department of Agriculture, seed growers, dealers, and local NGO partners attended the training program. Dr. A.K. Nayak, who was the director in-charge (NRRI) on the occasion, welcomed the participants. In his inaugural speech, he urged that seed systems (formal and informal) need to function properly to increase productivity with the introduction and adoption of new varieties. He further explained that seeds produced by farmers lack quality standards and therefore potential yields are not realized. He raised the issues of incorrect 6

IRRI-India/STRASA

supply and demand ratio and timely delivery of desirable seeds, which need attentive solutions. Dr. Mukund Variar, who coordinates Odisha project activities, in his inaugural presentation explained the current scenario of the seed system in Odisha and how IRRI is playing a larger role to help overcome the problems. He mentioned the approaches followed by and the strategies adopted by IRRI and the Department of Agriculture in Odisha to make the current seed system sustainable. A few of them mentioned follow: • • • •

Awareness generation among farmers about newly released varieties through learning from head-tohead trials. Use of ICT (mobile or web-based application) to address the gaps between supply and demand. Engaging with self-help groups to disseminate groupas well as individual-level learnings and to promote a women-led seed enterprise model. A demand-driven approach should be used through the participation of seed dealers in the demonstrations.

The resource persons from NRRI made presentations about the varieties, agronomic practices, and crop protection modules for quality seed production. A pre- and post-training evaluation were conducted to measure the amount of learning the Continued on page 8...

STRASA in the News:

Of Rice and Men: Cultivating the Next Green Revolution

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ogendra Sahoo (in photo) makes all of his income from cultivating rice on his 5-acre farm in Jajpur District of Odisha, India. His village is situated a bit above the coast, and every year Sahoo’s crops face rain, water scarcity, and damage from submergence. In 2015, he was the first farmer in his village to grow BINA Dhan 11, a submergence-tolerant IRRI-STRASA/R. Baltazar rice variety developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, Philippines. While most farmers had a yield of 1,700 kg per acre for different varieties, Sahoo achieved 1,200 kg per half an acre. “The farmers who heard about the performance of this variety came to me and asked for seeds for the next kharif season,” Sahoo says. “More than 20 farmers from other villages also obtained seeds from me.” Sahoo’s good fortune came from extensive research and testing from IRRI’s STRASA (Stress-Tolerant Rice for Africa and South Asia) project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and managed by Abdelbagi Ismail, head of the Genetics and Biotechnology Division at IRRI. IRRI led the charge during the first Green Revolution in the 1960s by developing IR8, a rice variety that saved the developing world from food insecurity. Around that time, China had suffered from a famine caused by the Great Leap Forward, and Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb warned of mass starvation in the 1970s and onward due to overpopulation. Nowadays, famines rarely occur in Asia and the mass starvation that the world was set to face never came. In the Philippines, annual rice production increased from 3.7 million tons to 7.7 million tons in the span of two decades. Meanwhile, India, which Ehrlich pointed to as one of the major nations on the brink of starvation, is currently the world’s largest exporter of rice. For many, rice production is a problem that has been solved. Global per capita rice consumption has plateaued, and, according to agricultural scientists Shoichi Ito, E. Wesley F. Peterson, and Warren R. Grant in an article for the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, as Asian nations increase their wealth, rice per capita consumption tends to decrease. Despite this, it is unclear whether IRRI’s success with IR8 has accomplished all its goals. While the first Green Revolution targeted areas having good water control and soil conditions, farmers in less favorable areas still use traditional rice varieties that can tolerate more stressful conditions. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, the increasing scarcity of land and water is a growing threat to food security. As farmers age, concern is heightened regarding who will take up their work when they pass. In Japan, the age of the average farmer is 70; in the Philippines and Indonesia, it is 57 and 50, respectively.

Alec Regino

The McGill International Review Although global per capita rice consumption has stagnated, the population is still rising markedly. According to IRRI, global rice demand is estimated to increase from 439 million tons in 2010 to 555 million tons in 2035. In Africa, where the population growth rate is high, demand for rice is increasing exponentially. Moreover, climate change has already negatively affected rice production. “Rice yields decrease with climate warming, and the increase in night temperature causes high sterility and reduced grain filling, causing poor quality,” Dr. Abdelbagi Ismail says. “In coastal areas, we are seeing progressive rises in sea level and inland intrusion by a few kilometers every year, especially in the coastal deltas of Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Myanmar. These deltas are the major rice production areas in these countries.” If the trends remain the same, yields are set to decline, and, in Asia, a continent where 90% of rice is consumed, this could have a disastrous effect on the 560 million hungry people in the region who rely on rice to sustain their diet. IRRI’s research in the 1960s was invaluable in stopping global famine. In the 21st century, researchers may have to dramatically alter rice agriculture again. This time, they’ll need to target the farmers that were left behind the first time around. “We are now integrating tolerances of abiotic factors into modern varieties and bringing them to the areas that missed the first Green Revolution,” Ismail says. “This is what we are referring to as the second Green Revolution.” As land becomes scarce and farmers grow older in Asia, it is Africa that can make the difference. “Africa is the potential future world food basket,” Ismail explains. Unlike the first Green Revolution, which used a single miracle variety to produce an exorbitant amount of rice, the second Green Revolution involves tailoring seeds to thrive in particular environments (drought, submergence, salinity, iron toxicity, heat, and cold). IRRI’s research has made it clear that it is possible to double the productivity in these areas, and researchers hope to increase the crop’s nutritional value too. “I am optimistic that, with sufficient investment in research, science will help us overcome all hurdles and sustain our food supply, and agriculture is the only source of food,” Ismail says. “The concept of the second Green Revolution is a good example, besides investing more in areas and resources that are not yet sufficiently exploited.” As a result of this, the next Green Revolution is, in essence, an undertaking aimed toward reducing hunger and poverty for the world’s poorest. It is the impoverished who are the most susceptible to global warming, and they stand to benefit the most from the development of rice science. Farmers need more efficient production practices dominated by mechanization and efficient varieties that require fewer resources to produce higher yields. The next Green Revolution does not have a single variety that has the same substantial effect that IR8 did. Instead, it will complete the first one by improving various types of rice to work in vastly different terrains, which will help the farmers, like Sahoo, who need this most. 7

IRRI and NRRI... from page 6

This issue’s contributors

participants had acquired about the subject. This also helped us to identify the areas requiring more attention. Dr. R. Sahu, who is a seed expert at NRRI and who coordinated the training program, explained the differences between grain and quality seeds. He described the classification of seeds, seed certification standards, and the process for quality seed production that includes isolation, land preparation, cultivation procedure, seedbed preparation, transplanting, harvesting, and threshing along with seed cleaning, testing processes, bagging, labeling, and seed storage practices. Dr. P. Sanghamitra, scientist at NRRI, took the participants to the laboratory to demonstrate the process of seed testing and cleaning. Other methods such as manual sorting, winnowing, and seed cleaning by using urea and/or salt solution were also demonstrated. The participants gained insights into testing some important components of seed such as physical purity, germination, seed moisture, seed viability, seed health, and seed vigor. Dr. Sahu organized a live demonstration about raising seedbeds, sowing, and transplanting. The participants were given opportunities to explore breeder and foundation seed plots and interact with breeders on different aspects of seed production. The training ended with an interactive session after the hands-on exposure where participants had an opportunity to ask specific questions and scientists answered them. The participants were asked to give feedback about the training program so that it could be improved according to their requirements. One of the participants, Ms. Luna Panda, said: “Before attending this training, I was not familiar with the complete processes of seed production and storage practices. These practical demonstrations gave me the confidence to disseminate these learnings to farmers, so they can also contribute to strengthening the seed system.” In his concluding remarks, Dr. Sahu expressed his desire to see that knowledge about quality seeds is disseminated to the farmers through the cadre of these resource persons.

AfricaRice

Follow us at http://strasa.irri.org/home and https://www.facebook.com/ STRASA.Project/ 8

Ramaiah Venuprasad Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) Akhlasur Rahman A.S.M. Masuduzzaman IRRI-India Deepti Saksena Manzoor H. Dar IRRI-Philippines Mathilde Thonon Ranjitha Puskur Rakesh Kumar Singh Rona Azucena Content/editorial adviser Abdelbagi M. Ismail, STRASA project leader

Editor Bill Hardy/IRRI-Communication Unit

Writer/graphic design and layout

Maria Rowena M. Baltazar, IRRI-STRASA/Philippines

Issue coordination and circulation Krystle Anne M. Ambayec-Dino, IRRI-STRASA/Philippines T.C. Dhoundiyal, IRRI-STRASA/South Asia

For any comments/suggestions and contributions or article submission, please contact: Abdelbagi M. Ismail, [email protected] Maria Rowena M. Baltazar, [email protected]

The STRASA project is funded by the