Vietnamese scientist creates rice strain against stress

Rice can withstand salinity, drought but still gives high yield, quality fragrant and delicious rice thanks to gene selection.

Vietnam is one of the countries most severely affected by climate change. High sea level rise leads to the risk of losing cultivated areas due to flooding and salinity. Therefore the creation of new rice varieties can withstand saline conditions, flooding, drought is an urgent requirement.

Prof. Nguyen Thi Lang , senior researcher of the Mekong Delta Rice Research Institute, has sought to study and choose to create many varieties of rice that, according to her call, are "tolerant of stress".

OM 3673 rice variety is in trial production in Soc Trang.(Photo: DN).

GS Lang selected prospective strains and selected the advantages of each variety to combine stress-tolerant traits.

In areas affected by climate change, in one crop, rice can suffer both drought, flooding, and salinity. Stresses at the same time make rice unable to grow from the seedling stage. To solve this problem, the team used a technique to stack stress-resistant genes using molecular markers (MAS) along with techniques in molecular biology.

In order to produce high yielding rice varieties with drought tolerance, scientists have synthesized 100 hybrid combinations, combining salinity and drought tolerance genes, short growth duration, good quality into raised rice varieties. high productivity. The breeding process selects varieties adapted to stress at both seedling and flowering stages.

The team also performed experiments to select long-grain, beautiful and delicious rice seeds from typical samples. There are about 200 hybrid combinations made of long, fragrant, fragrant seeds. Selected molecular marker combinations have found the best yield variety to test in a greenhouse in the Mekong Delta Rice Institute. Then there were 22 long grain lines tested in the field in 13 provinces.

So far, six rice varieties have been recognized for trial production in an area of ​​about 90 hectares. Among these are OM 8928 drought-resistant varieties, yield of 6-7 tons / ha; OM 10373 drought resistant; OM 137 is fragrant and salty; OM345 aromatic, high yield resistant to dry and salty .

The Council accepted the topic of organization on September 19.(Photo: DN).

Prof. Lang said that when implementing the research group, the project was funded by the National Technology Innovation Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology and supported the steps in the implementation process. This combination helps the research team overcome many difficulties to soon produce results. In early 2018, many rice varieties of the project were transferred to enterprises for production in dry areas in the Central region.

According to Prof. Tran Dinh Long, Chairman of Vietnam Seed Association: "With rice varieties of good quality, resistant to harsh conditions of the environment, the weather will help farmers in the region affected by Climate change is assured of production Many of these rice varieties are in the project of technological innovation to build the national rice brand by the Ministry of Science and Technology, which is a very meaningful contribution of Prof. Nguyen. Thi Lang and the collective of scientists of the Mekong Delta Rice Institute for the development of commodity agriculture, quality and environmental friendliness , 'said Long.

On September 19, the scientific council of the Ministry of Science and Technology accepted a state-level project "Research and application of advanced technology to create pure rice varieties resistant to salinity - term adapted to regional rice cultivation conditions. salinity in the Mekong Delta " chaired by Prof. Nguyen Thi Lang.

The project carried out from 2013 to 2017 has created 6 varieties of rice for trial production: OM6328, OM3673, OM10418, OM137, OM10373, OM5976.

There have been many research results on specific products with 250 hybrid combinations with 12,600 lines from different generations, many varieties of rice added to starting materials and improved to produce 75 lines / varieties of prospects. .