The collaborative project entitled, ‘Accelerating the development and adoption of next-generation (NextGen) rice varieties for major ecosystems in the Philippines’ aims to fast-track the introduction and adoption of higher yielding inbred and hybrid rice varieties that are resistant to major pests and diseases, and can withstand adverse environments.
To help the country achieve food security, the project targets to produce higher yields by more than 5% of previous varieties, using marker-assisted breeding and selection, multi-location testing, increased breeder/foundation seed production and dissemination.
“The project would help shorten the breeding time to produce new varieties faster and make them accessible to rice farmers,” said Thelma F. Padolina, senior research fellow at PhilRice.
Multi-location trials are done in all major irrigated and rainfed rice-growing regions under the supervision of DA regional field offices, state colleges, and universities across the country. Adaption trials are being done in farmer-partners’ fields.
The Rice Technical Working Group (RTWG) also approved 24 new promising inbred and hybrid rice varieties developed by the project.
Source: Official Gazette | 02 July 2015
