Capiz town one of 20 areas to be planted with new rice variety
The municipality of Sigma, in the province of Capiz is one of the 20 areas in the country identified by the Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) to be planted with submergence tolerance line of palay.
PhilRice Chief Science Research Specialist Dr. Norvie Manigbas said aside from Sigma the other submergence areas are: Nueva Ecija, Tarlac, Bicol, Mindoro Occidental and Mindoro Oriental, Agusan, Davao, Cagayan, Isabela, Pangasinan, Bulacan, Camarines Sur and Nueva Vizcaya.
Manigbas said rice fields in these identified submergence areas are usually damaged by flashfloods. He said PhilRice in collaboration with the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) researchers have came up with a promising submergence tolerant lines including the IRRI line IR64-Sub 1, which contains the Sub1 gene from the Indian variety FR13A and is claimed to be tolerant to submergence up to two weeks. It has high survival rate during the wet season. The variety was done through a conventional breeding.
The discovery of the new variety of rice is one of the government's actions to increase rice production and attain self sufficiency in the country. Researchers are into the discovery of submergence tolerance rice variety and heat tolerance variety. In the next century, there is a possible temperature rise by one degree centigrade. It would increase heat stress of crops and higher nighttime temperatures that could adversely affect grain formation.
The new line could withstand complete submergence for at least two weeks. The expected yield of IR 64 sub 1 during abnormal weather condition (flooding) is four to five tons per hectare. Under normal condition, an hectare planted with IR 64 can yield five to 5.6 tons per hectare. An hectare planted with IR 64 Sub 1 has a yield of 5 to 5.9 per hectare during normal condition, said Manigbas.
The research team is also in the process of identifying submergence areas in Iloilo. The town of Sigma will be given some 2 to 3 kilos of IR 64 sub 1 variety of rice.