Rice varieties like miracles save millions of lives

The first rice variety planted by an Indian farmer in 1967 yielded up to 10 tons per hectare as a miracle for saving millions of lives.

The farmer, Subba Rao, is harvesting the IR8 field.(Photo: IRRI)

" It is a big change. Farmers across all states of India are very happy, " said Nekkanti, Subba Rao, who popularized IR8 rice varieties from the age of 29, now 80 years old, speaking on the occasion. celebrating 50 years of discovering rice varieties.

According to the BBC, he is considered the "Green Revolution" promoter - the agricultural revolution has saved millions of lives and changed the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

In the 1950s, Asia, the continent accounted for half of the world's population, facing the risk of food crisis. Rice is a popular food here, accounting for about 80% of the calories consumed in the region.

Therefore, in 1960, two American charities, Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, jointly established the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines. They bred over 10,000 different varieties of rice. The work progressed slowly, according to the agronomist and geneticist Dr. Gurdev Singh Khush, who joined the IR8 development team in 1967.

" Normally we only increase 1-2% of productivity per year," he said.

IR8 is a hybrid between high yielding Indonesian rice variety (PETA) and Chinese dwarf rice variety (DGWG). It has created surprises. When first experimented in 1966 in the Philippines, from 88 kg of original seed, researchers harvested up to 71 tons of rice.

Subba Rao was the first farmer to plant and widespread IR8 rice varieties in India in 1967. By the following year, IR8 was planted on 1,600 hectares in his village, then spread throughout the country. , making Subba Rao called " Mr. IR8" .

Subba Rao agri-farmer is now 80 years old.(Photo: IRRI)

" There has never been any case in history that rice yields doubled like that," Khush remembers feeling astonished by the fruits of his team.

According to Morell, the "miracle" obtained here by IR8 is short-lived.

"Many of the energy from the Sun is absorbed to produce more grains, so the number of seeds per grain increases and it does not grow in height (due to short days) so it is difficult to break down when fertilized." , he said.

IR8 was then grown in popularity throughout Asia. It helps to boost rice production, prevent hunger. Most farmers benefit from increased productivity. Rice prices are then pushed down also help consumers benefit.

Under optimal conditions, IR8 can yield 10 times more than traditional rice varieties at that time.

" Genetics is great to do this," commented IRRI director Matthew Morell.

Initially IR8 still has some disadvantages, such as having more bran and harder after cooking. Mass planting of a variety of rice varieties in many places also reduces biodiversity, increasing the risk of widespread crop loss if you get pests or diseases. The IR8 team spent another two decades to improve the quality of rice seeds, increase resistance to pests and reduce growth time.

Like "golden rice" bred by IRRI scientists.(Photo: IRRI)

IRRI is developing new varieties of rice to cope with new threats faced by the world, such as rice varieties that are resistant to climate change, soil salinity and rising global temperatures or malnutrition problems. nourishment.

One of the important rice varieties that IRRI developed is genetically modified rice, often called the "golden rice", created to address vitamin A deficiency, estimated to cause about 67,000 deaths. I am under 5 years old each year. IRRI is also developing another rice variety with low blood sugar index to address diabetes in Asia.

However, IR8 remains a great success for IRRI scientists.

"The population of Asia is about 4.5 billion people, all of them eat rice, " Dr Kush said. " " The current price of rice is only half the time before the Green Revolution. In the 1980s, more than 50% of Asia's population lacked food, which is now only 12%.