NEW HIGH-YIELDING PERENNIAL RICE SEES SUSTAINABILITY SUCCESS -- THE LAND INSTITUTE

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 (Bernama) -- A new high-yielding, long-lived perennial rice with significant environmental, economic, and social sustainability impacts is now being grown in Southeast Asia and parts of Africa, according to a study in the journal Nature Sustainability.

Researchers in China's Yunnan Province have developed perennial rice in a relatively short two-decade timeframe, achieving comparable yields to annual rice varieties.

They were supported with scientific expertise and seed funding from Kansas-based nonprofit The Land Institute and a global network of researchers.

“Since perennial rice can produce yields over eight consecutive harvests similar to annual rice, this is direct evidence that developing perennial versions of grain crops is feasible.

“This evidence provides a clear reason to vastly increase research investment in ongoing work to develop perennial versions of crops like wheat and sorghum,” said Director of Crop Improvement and Lead Scientist of the Kernza® Domestication Program at The Land Institute, Lee DeHaan in a statement.

The research shows that perennial rice crops have advantages over annual rice crops including long-lived production whereby perennial rice produced grain for eight consecutive harvests over four years from a single planting.

Other advantages include comparable high yields; significant carbon sequestration; labour and inputs savings; and improved farmer livelihoods as farmer profits from perennial rice ranged from 17 per cent to 161 per cent above annual rice.

Senior author Fengyi Hu and Dayun Tao began working with co-author Erik Sacks to develop perennial rice in 1999 in a collaboration between the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (YAAS) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).

Hearing of the IRRI project, The Land Institute invited Sacks to present his research in 2005.

This connection eventually led to Hu and the YAAS team partnering with the perennial grain breeding experts at The Land Institute in 2007 to help jumpstart the development of a promising wide hybrid cross between annual, cultivated rice and a perennial rice cousin from Africa.

Inspired by the potential for Hu's research to develop upland perennial rice, given the catastrophic soil erosion in the hilly regions of Southeast Asia, The Land Institute provided critical funding, technical support, and mentoring and helped expand a network of global peer researchers.

-- BERNAMA