Join us to learn about "Perennial Rice, from Breeding to Application," featuring Dr. Shilai Zhang, Professor, Yunnan University.
To tackle food insecurity faced by an ever-growing population, there is an urgent need to develop new forms of highly productive and ecologically-secure agricultural systems. Perennial Rice (PR) is now a reality from theory and practice with the release of six PR cultivars, which are perennial rice 23 (PR23), Yunda25 (PR25), Yunda26 (PR26), Yunda27 (PR27), Yunda107 (PR107), Yunda109 (PR109) to farmers in the Yunnan Province of China and also testing over the world where rice is staple food. Selected from interspecific hybridization between the cultivated rice Oryza sativa and the wild perennial rice O. longistaminata, these PR cultivars have regularly produced grain yields (6.8 t ha-1) comparable with those of seasonally-replanted annual counterparts under paddy conditions, with excellent agronomic type combining robust regrowth and acceptable grain and milling quality. Farmer preference is strong, due to reduced labour requirements for land preparation and transplanting, also saved seeds input and seeding nursery preparing, which reduces costs, increases profitability, and reduces drudgery. In combination with no tillage, stubble retention and enhanced surface cover, PR cultivar possessed the benefit of reducing soil deterioration, with potential longer-term benefits to soil fertility (increase rate 0.95 and 0.11 Mg ha-1 year-1 for SOC and TN), farming-system flexibility and farmer livelihood compared to annual rice. This is the milestone of release of a hybridized perennial grain crop. This seminar will outline the breeding and performance of perennial rice, summarize the social-economic, ecological and soil benefits of perennial rice -no tillage cropping system, and discuss the optimal area for perennial rice production over the world. Our innovation will help maintain food security and ecological integrity, and also inspire research on other perennial grains.
There will be time for interacting with the speakers after the presentation.