Innovative planting techniques have reduced water consumption by half compared to traditional flooded fields.
A COLD, dry part of Chile might not sound like the best place to grow rice, a famously thirsty grain that thrives in tropical conditions.
But a new strain of the world’s favorite cereal developed by scientists in the drought-plagued South American country has generated hope that rice can be grown in seemingly inhospitable conditions.
Using an innovative planting technique, Javier Munoz has been trialling the “Jaspe” strain created by experts at the Agricultural Research Institute’s (INIA) Rice Breeding Programme.
It is one of several research efforts worldwide to come up with less resource-hungry crops at a time of increased water scarcity in parts of the world due to global warming.
Using Jaspe in combination with a growing method that requires only intermittent watering cut the Munoz family’s water consumption in half in a country that has for generations cultivated rice in flooded fields, or paddies.
At the same time, yield rocketed, with each seed yielding about thirty plants — nearly ten times more than a conventional rice field.
Irrigating rather than flooding rice fields “is a historic step… towards the future,” Munoz, 25, told AFP at his farm in the region of Nuble, a nearly five-hour drive south from the capital Santiago.
Next year, he said, he hoped to increase his production area from one hectare to five.
Chile’s Maule and Nuble regions contain the southernmost rice fields in the world.
Typically grown in wetter, tropical areas, rice cultivation in Chile has been hampered by an unprecedented megadrought, now in its 15th year and driven by climate change, according to scientists.
SOURCE: AFP