Hoa Binh farmers restored 24 rice varieties

With the help of scientists and technical staff and the sponsorship of the Southern Asia Community Education Organization - SEARICE, Hoa Binh farmers have recovered 24 rice varieties, including rice varieties. Local sticky rice is almost no longer produced.

On average, the amount of seed supplied by the seed company only meets about 30-40% of the demand for seed of Hoa Binh farmers, the remaining 60-70% is left by farmers themselves. Seed sources used by farmers also have many positive aspects to avoid dependence on supply sources (sometimes very slow and types that are not suitable to farmers' expectations), reduce seed costs and support the public. again. In fact, in Hoa Binh, there are also many good quality local varieties of rice, so it is an effective way to preserve these varieties to produce. However, farmers' seeds are often degraded, mixed and accumulated diseases are important causes of adverse impacts on rice productivity and quality.

(Photo: ND) To contribute to solving difficulties and inadequacies in rice varieties, the project program: 'Conservation, development and application of community plant genetic diversity - BUCAP' funded by SEARICE It has been implemented in the province for six years to help farmers restore rice varieties, focusing on improved varieties that have been grown for a long time in the locality.

This program aims to preserve and improve the quality of rice varieties, as well as contribute to creating seed sources for farmers to exchange in the community for production.

With the help of scientists and technicians, the farmers participating in the project have been guided and strictly applied the process of restoring rice varieties according to the regulations of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. including super-pure restoration methods or population selection. The post-recovery rice variety is also applied immediately to the regulation of purity, germination rate, impurity rate . to confirm the quality.

Usually, there are many methods of restoration of different varieties, but farmers often apply two main methods of restoring populations and restoring super-prototypal varieties.

Population rehabilitation measures are applied to new or selective varieties of rice, or varieties of purity of the population are relatively good, with the goal of retaining the purity and good characteristics of the breed. for the next production.

The super-pure restoration is complicated, farmers need three production cycles to complete the cycle of revitalizing a rice variety. This measure is often used to revitalize local rice varieties, which have been grown for a long time in the locality, or used to keep the original characteristics of the rice varieties chosen by farmers.

Among the 24 rice varieties that Hoa Binh farmers can recover, there are local sticky rice varieties that, if not restored, people do not know where to buy seeds to have standard varieties, because of the seed production units. The state almost no longer produces, or produces very few of these varieties, such as Bao Thai, CR203, etc. The total amount of seed is 2.2 tons reaching the standard of super-pure and over 38 tons of the same receive. Most of the restored varieties were used by farmer groups to propagate and exchange in the community for mass production.

In fact, although the technique of rice seed restoration is complicated, farmers can fully conduct it themselves if they are instructed in detail and in detail. In Hoa Binh, the participation of farmers in the restoration of varieties will contribute positively to the preservation and development of precious genetic resources. Therefore, the participation of scientists, managers, leaders and technicians to help farmers achieve this goal is essential.

HOANG THI BICH HUONG
Department of Plant Protection of Hoa Binh province