IRRI aims at 25% more yield from hybrid rice
One of the major constraints in the adoption of hybrid rice technologies is the high cost of seed
Manila (Philippines)-based International Rice Research Institute is looking at raising the average yield of hybrid rice by 20-25 per cent more than the high-yielding inbred varieties.
“We are looking at a number of approaches to improve the productivity of hybrids in terms of yield. While we initially aimed at increasing the yield by 10-15 per cent, we are now looking at almost doubling it over the next five to 10 years,” said IRRI director-general Robert Zeigler.
IRRI is a non-profit independent research organisation that develops new rice varieties and rice crop management techniques to help farmers improve the yield and quality.
One of the major constraints in the adoption of hybrid rice technologies is the high cost of seed. IRRI is working on improving the quality of hybrid seed as well as rice as the idea in the minds of many consumers, millers and policy makers is that the quality of hybrid is inferior, which need not be the case, he added.
Speaking to Business Standard on the sidelines of the sixth international hybrid rice symposium here on Monday, he said sustainability of Chinese hybrid rice species in countries like India and southeast Asia was very poor. “No magic solutions exist in China. You cannot bring in Chinese hybrids to these countries ... they have failed. They have to be built up on local varieties within India,” Zeigler said.
China still dominates in the global hybrid rice production, with 50 per cent of rice area under hybrid, as it made significant policy decisions in the late 70s and early 80s to aggressively pursue the development, dissemination and adoption of hybrid rice.
Though India, Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh all have hybrid rice programmes, these have not taken off as quickly as in China, as the quality requirement in these countries are very strict and consumer preferences in terms of quality determine whether hybrids can be successful, he said.
“All agriculture developments require policy interventions and policy frameworks. Today’s hybrids, however, are of much better quality. We expect the hybrid industry to grow much quickly in the next decade. Probably in the next 10 years, I would not be surprised if we see 25 per cent of rice from hybrid, from the present 10 per cent in India,” he added.