Rice

choi

(1) There are three genera of rice: Oryza, Zizania and Porteresia. The latter genera are wild rice, with Zizania eaten in North America and Porteresia in Bangladesh. Oryza has about twenty species, the most important being Oryza sativa (Asian rice) or Oryza glaberrima (African rice). Oryza sativa has two subspecies: japonica (short grain) and indica (long grain).


(2) In the midst of Green Revolution, how high-yield rice IR8 was created. By cross breeding. Please recall that Green Revolution is all about dwarf stalks which--compared with the traditional ones with long stalks--yield grains more quickly, spend less nutrients on the stalks as opposed to grains, and support the weight of grains.

Tom Hargrove and W Ronnie Coffman, Breeding History. Rice Today, October-December, 2006, 35-38 www.goldenrice.org/PDFs/Breeding_History_Sept_2006.pdf
(at 37: “Seeds from the F1 plants were sown in the field, and produced about 10,000 second-generation (F2) plants that segregated by height in a ratio of three talls to one dwarf. Dr Jennings immediately recognized this as a Mendelian ratio—named after Gregor Mendel, who became known as the father of genetics for his 19th-century research into the inheritance of traits in pea plants. This was a key result—it meant that dwarfism in DGWG was controlled by a single gene and was therefore simply inherited, making the job of developing a commercially usable semidwarf variety immeasurably easier")
Sarah Whalen, The father of 'miracle rice' turns 100. Asia Times, Sept 27, 2006
www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/HI27Ae01.html
(“By 1960, Rockefeller Foundation scientists in India found a Taiwanese variety with a high yield, but also with a high susceptibility to pests. That same year, the Rockefeller and Ford foundations pooled resources and set up a new research center, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines. IRRI hired a Taiwanese plant geneticist, Te Tzu Chang, to study the variety's genes, and the American scientists made numerous crosses, creating a new generation of plants that eventually produced a dwarf variety. Two years later [1962], IRRI hired Beachell, who then selected plants resulting in a semi-dwarf rice, IR8 - a ‘super’ [hybrid] rice”)
* Taichung Native 1 (TN1)   台中在來1號
* “Dee-geo-woo-gen 低腳烏尖 from China, a parent of TN1”
* TT Chang  張德慈
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._T._Chang
(1927-2006; born in Shanghai; University of Nanking with BSA in 1949)
* Henry "Hank" Beachell (1906-2006; American)
(D) YUAN Longping‘s 袁隆平 hybrid rice, released in 1974, was something else.
(v) Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 was awarded to “father of the Green Revolution"  Norman BORLAUG alone.
(1914-2009; American; PhD from University of Minnesota in 1942; in Mexico developed semi-dwarf, high-yield, disease-resistant wheat varieties)  Wikipedia

choi

(3) Hybrid rice is something different.
(a) How hybrid rice is produced.
(i) Hybrid Rice. International Rice Research Institute, undated.
irri.org/news/hot-topics/hybrid-rice

This Web page is “About.”  Please, in the left column, click “History of hybrid rice” to continue.
(ii) Hybrid Rice Breeding: FAQ. Philippines Rice Research Institute, undated
www.philricehybrid.com/faq

(b) Taiwan does not have hybrid rice. If hybrid rice is so good, how come other nations plant little?

What Is Hybrid Rice? Patent Lens, undatedwww.patentlens.net/daisy/RiceGenome/3649/3958.html

Please also read Reference 1: Hybrid Rice for Food Security. FAO, United Nations, undated.

(c) Hybrid Rice in China - A Great Yield Forward?  Grain, Jan 27, 2007
www.grain.org/article/entries/58 ... great-yield-forward

Quote:

“So why do farmers continue to grow these hybrids? The lack of options is one factor: as the official admits, ‘we haven’t tried introducing other varieties except hybrids.’

“The hybrid ‘yield advantage’, achieved by most farmers in Yuanyang and the other areas of Yunnan that we visited, was generally modest. On average their yield was only 500–1,000 kg per hectare more than it would have been with conventional or traditional varieties. This was similar to the experiences of the farmers we spoke to in China’s second major hybrid rice growing region, Sichuan. In the village of Wenxiang, one farmer said that his annual income from growing hybrid rice was only about 80 RMB (US$10) more than he was earning two years ago, when he was still using traditional varieties (Zhenzhuai and Guipigu). This falls far short of the additional cost of the hybrid seeds. * * * Even when the farmers we met had increased their yields by growing hybrid rice, they had not consistently exceeded the national average of seven tonnes per hectare. For the yields vary greatly, depending on location and conditions * * * So it seems that two decades of research – and the experience of planting 15 million hectares with different hybrid varieties – have achieved very little.

“As well as being a top-down affair dominated by scientists and agricultural researchers, hybrid seed development is a rigid procedure that tends to ignore, rather than to address, the gap between the yields achieved in experiments and those experienced by farmers in the field.

“Yield is not the only concern among the farmers we met. The general consensus is that hybrids are more susceptible to pests and diseases than the traditional varieties.

“In the far flung villages of Yuanyang, farmers have no memory of ever being visited by government extension agents, either to explain hybrid rice or to share knowledge about effective ways of dealing with pests and diseases. * * * But no one has bothered to ask them [farmers] about their experiences, much less attempted to understand their situation in order to address their basic problems.

“But pesticide use is not the only input on the rise with hybrids. Farmers have also noticed an increase in their fertiliser usage.

“most of the farmers we met – but few of the scientists and government employees – had fond memories of the distinct taste of certain traditional varieties, as compared with the bland flavour of the hybrids. They also pointed out that some old varieties were much better for specific uses, such as preparing rice noodles. But all of that has disappeared.

“A sad fact about growing hybrid rice as a cash crop is that farmers can produce only one harvest a year. This, together with the expense of having to buy seeds every year, means that the families have a very low income

“A common feeling was that they [farmers] would rather be growing something other than hybrid rice – if only they had the choice.

Note:
(a) Yuanyang  云南省红河哈尼族彝族自治州 元阳县
(b) Gejiu  红河哈尼族彝族自治州 个旧市
(c) Denong Zhengcheng Seed Company, Ltd  德农正成种业有限公司