Environment

Flood Resistant Rice to Fight Hunger

by Karenke4 | January 29, 2009 at 04:52 pm

360 views | 14 Recommendations | 9 comments

With climate changes looming, millions of people around the world are struggling with extended floods, which kill the crops that feed those millions. Perhaps the most important staple for the majority of the world is rice, and losing rice to flooding can cause rampant starvation.

As sea levels rise and world weather patterns worsen, flooding has become a major cause of rice crop loss. Scientists estimate 4 million tons of rice are lost every year because of flooding. That's enough rice to feed 30 million people.

Recently, scientist and professor Patricia Ronald has successfully bred a new strain of hearty, flood-proof rice that will survive under water for up to 17 days, as opposed to the typical three. Ronald and her colleagues David Mackill and Julia Bailey-Serres have been working on cultivating this crop for over 15 years. Starting with one gene, the team introduced the it via precision breeding to normal rice varieties.

"The results were really terrific," said Ronald. "The farmers found three- to five-fold increases in yield due to flood tolerance. They can plant the normal way. They can harvest the normal way and it tastes the same. Farmers had more food for their families and they also had additional rice they could sell to bring a little bit of money into the household."

"The potential for impact is huge," agreed Mackill in a statement on the IRRI Web site. "In Bangladesh, for example, 20 percent of the rice land is flood prone and the country typically suffers several major floods each year. Submergence-tolerant varieties could make major inroads into Bangladesh's annual rice shortfall."

Ronald says that the rice may be available in a large scale within two years. Great news for the countries that rely on rice for consumption and export. And while it may not halt the hunger crisis completely it is certainly an exciting step forward.

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Paschen

at 21:11 on January 29th, 2009

As long as it is not GMO.

indradeep.biswas

at 21:40 on January 29th, 2009

In the paddy fields of West Bengal, India, most of the rice farming is still done with manual labor. Bulls for plows, channels made from ponds and rivers for watering, and obviously, planting and weeding by hand.

indradeep.biswas has contributed a photo to this story.

mrconnor

at 21:44 on January 29th, 2009

This is a photo of elders of the Kelabit tribe in Pa Lungan, Sarawak, harvesting rice fields. This area has seen strange weather patterns over the last few years, and especially now in 2009. Excessive amounts of rain have caused some flooding and subsequently a lower yield of rice. In the neighboring town of Bario flooding had been much worse - this area is renowned for it's full-flavored rice.

mrconnor has contributed a photo to this story.

neeZhom

at 22:27 on January 29th, 2009

Flood in the rice field is at kampung Teluk Pasu, Manir, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia. That photo was taken when the water was began to lessen. :)

neeZhom has contributed a photo to this story.

galleryleshirl

at 00:14 on January 30th, 2009

This is our son's property in Townsville.The size of this land is 1075square meters, many times throughout the wet season the front yard and back yard is flooded with 6 to 8 inches of water, they have 2 pumps running when this happens just to move all the water out.

galleryleshirl has contributed a photo to this story.

Miriam Mannak

at 05:04 on January 30th, 2009

In Africa, rice will probably be not the solution as the southern part of the continent - hardest struck by food insecurity - is struggling with drought. But I assume that Asia will fare well with this new type of rice. As long as it is not GMO.

Duc Anh Dam

at 07:34 on January 30th, 2009

Walking along the rice field. Vietnam is among one of the biggest rice exporters in the world. Photo by Tran Manh Cuong.

Duc Anh Dam has contributed a photo to this story.

NileGuide.com

at 09:09 on January 30th, 2009

please provide us with photo attribution and link, as required by our Flickr account

thanks,

NileGuide

(http://www.nileguide.com/)

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/nileguide/)

cdg images

at 19:25 on January 30th, 2009

A family of Wild Boar fleeing after we meet unsuspectingly while photographing migrating birds in an adjacent flooded field. The Male made his presence known that he was protecting his family who were hiding in the tall grass along side the levee separating the fields. He then proceeded to lead his family to the safety of the opposite end of the area close to the tree line far from the humans that were encroaching on the rice fields they were foraging in.

cdg images has contributed a photo to this story.