The Rice Variety Evaluation Committee of the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council approved nine hybrid and one long-grain rice varieties for commercial use.
The new varieties are expected to replace low-yielding varieties in the next kharif season.
The hybrid rice varieties can produce 15% to 20% more yield compared to inbred rice grown under similar conditions.
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More on new and improved rice varieties:
Eleven new and improved rice varieties released in Burundi
The Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi released eleven new rice varieties that are resilient to climate change, disease-resistant, high-yielding and with high nutritional value and good grain quality. These rice varieties were released in collaboration with IRRI-Burundi under World Bank’s variety development program through the Great Lakes Regional Integrated Agriculture Development Project.
A new varietal delivery program designed to win farmers’ hearts and minds
One of the possible reasons for the low scaling and adoption of new varieties could be the lack of efforts in the varietal delivery programs for creating awareness and farmer-centric learning. Traditional extension programs that primarily concentrate on large-scale demonstration sites usually do not take into account the constraints associated with smallholder farmers. To show the best possible performance of a new variety, these demonstration sites create ideal conditions that might not be within the farmers’ capability and resources. Moreover, these demonstration sites tend to show farmers only the yield and associated parameters in a standalone setup.
Growing hope with Green Super Rice
A silver lining to their gloomy situation came in the form of Green Super Rice (GSR) seeds. GSR varieties bred at IRRI can thrive in harsh environments such as areas prone to flooding, drought, and salty soils, according to Jauhar Ali, IRRI’s GSR project leader and coordinator for Asia. The seeds had reached the farmers through Evelyn Gergon, a crop protection specialist from the Philippine Rice Research Institute, several months before the typhoon came.
