Chinese Drought-tolerant Rice to Tackle Hunger in Africa

 

For more than two decades, Chinese researchers have been working on drought-tolerant rice and have made tremendous progress. They created a drought-tolerant rice cultivar to increase food production in Africa.

This follows the Shanghai Agrobiological Gene Center's introduction of a water-saving and drought-resistant rice strain in Burundi and Kenya a few years ago. According to Liu Zaochang, the center's Africa program director, this rice variety could be certified for market next year. "We are most likely China's first rice breeders for Africa." We are marketing many rice types to 11 African countries, including Botswana, where rice has not been cultivated in nearly 50 years."

Chinese scientists, according to Liu, crossbred widely planted hybrid rice types with those known to thrive in desert soils to create drought-resistance.

 He believes it has the potential to outperform hybrid rice in terms of yield and thrive in substandard settings. "It saves labor because farmers can bypass the lengthy process of nurturing rice seedlings and directly plant rice seeds in the fields, and its demand for fertilizers is two-thirds of its conventional counterparts."

The aromatic rice has an extraordinary flavor, according to John Kimani, a rice breeder with the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, and the plants are extremely productive, drought-resistant, and water-saving. He emphasized that the variety is great in terms of marketability. "We are thrilled at the prospect of releasing them for widespread cultivation."

Liu noted that Kenya has 100,000 hectares of paddy fields, which provide almost one-third of the country's 300 tons of rice consumption each year. "Due to covenants under the Convention on Wetlands, it is nearly impossible for them to fill the gap by expanding the size of paddy fields." And converting hillsides into rice fields is costly."

According to the expert, the new rice variety has decreased water use by more than 40% and methane emissions by at least 70%. He emphasized that methane has a 25-fold greater impact on global warming than carbon dioxide, and rice cultivation accounts for roughly 20% of worldwide methane emissions.

Drought-resistant rice varieties, according to Liu, offer a long-term solution to climate change challenges. "Drought-resistant rice varieties have enormous potential and can help Africa achieve food self-sufficiency." It has assisted African countries in reducing their dependency on rice imports."