Low-tech plus high-tech for good upland rice. Validated RNRRS Output.
Abstract
This is one of 280 summaries describing key outputs from the projects run by DFID's 10-year Renewable Natural Resources Research Strategy (RNRRS) programmes.
Principally based on Projects R6673, R7080, R7434, R7435, R8200, R8099. A novel combination of high-tech and low-tech approaches has successfully bred rice varieties for upland farms in eastern India. Farmers in Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal selected from among varieties whose roots had been improved by molecular breeding techniques. It's not possible to select for traits such as better rooting in farmers' fields, but combining laboratory methods and farmer selection works well. Nearly half the rice-growing area in the three eastern states is rain-fed upland. Here, as droughts are common, it's important for rice to send its roots deeply into the soil to get water. The new varieties reduce farmers' risks of losing crops or of poorer harvests because of lack of rain.
The CD has the following information for this output: Description, Validation, Current Situation, Current Promotion, Impacts On Poverty, Environmental Impact. Attached PDF (19 pp.) taken from the CD.
Citation
PSP22, New technologies, new processes, new policies: tried-and-tested and ready-to-use results from DFID-funded research, Research Into Use Programme, Aylesford, Kent, UK, ISBN 978-0-9552595-6-2, p 33.