Submersible rice variety is the answer to floods–DA

In the end, only one rice variety was left standing in the flood-stricken croplands of central Luzon.

The floods that submerged the country’s agricultural heartland during a succession of devastating typhoons recently, showed the resiliency of the so-called “submarino” rice, or PSB Rc18, which was introduced in 2009 and is still undergoing final testing.

Dr. Eufemio Rasco Jr., executive director of the Philippine Rice Research Institute (Philrice), said reports from Victoria, Tarlac, showed that the variety was able to recover despite being submerged in water for several days.

“The results were very impressive,” Rasco said in a phone interview Thursday. “I expect that demand for this will increase in the next wet cropping season in 2012,” he said.

According to reports from Tarlac, the rice line in a 378 square-meter plot did not exhibit any discoloration. It was also spared from pests and stunted growth despite being under water 1.5 meters deep during the four-day flooding caused by Typhoon “Juaning” in July.

Flood tolerant

The submergence in flood waters did not also affect the flood-tolerant grain’s density, as is usually seen in popular rice varieties.

The PSB Rc18 was developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Baños, Laguna and the University of California-Davis.

Meant for cultivation in irrigated lowlands with an average yield of 5 tons per hectare, it is infused with a submergence tolerance gene, or Sub1, for it to survive, grow and develop even after 14 days of complete water submergence at vegetative stage. Submarino rice will not grow if it is submerged in floodwaters at the mature stage.

With typhoons regularly hitting Luzon every year, agriculture officials are urging farmers to try the flood-tolerant varieties to reduce losses.

“If you know that you are prone to flooding, then this is what you should plant. Don’t gamble anymore,” Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala has urged.

“We will recommend the use of flood tolerant rice. It raises their survival and recovery rate,” Rasco said.

Rasco said nonflood tolerant rice would not be able to recover after being underwater for four days.

Seedlings prepared

In anticipation of the demand for the submarino variety next year, Philrice has started to prepare the seedlings, he said.

Nearly a million metric tons (MT) of unmilled rice were ruined by the successive typhoons that inundated central and northern Luzon recently, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said.

In milled terms, the rice crop lost to Typhoons “Egay,” “Falcon,” Juaning, “Mina,” “Pedring,” and “Quiel” have reached 586,544 MT.

The Luzon farm lands supply about half of Metro Manila’s rice needs.