Jasmine VS Jazzman: Which Is More Fragrant?

Jasmine VS Jazzman: Which Is More Fragrant?       Thai rice farmers' worries have begun again, as the Jazzmen company of the United States has proclaimed the splendid success of breeding an Uncle Sam brand fragrant rice. In the past, US researchers bred several fragrant rice varieties, but their aroma was still far weaker than jasmine rice. These varieties were Della, Calmati, Jasmati, Delrose, Dellmati, A301 and Jasmine 85. Notably, these varieties had clearly poorer cooking properties than Khao Dawk Mali. But how far has Jazzman followed in the footsteps of Khao Dawk Mali?

By Assoc. Prof. Dr. Apichart Vanavichit Rice Science Center, Rice Gene Discovery Unit,  Kasetsart University and the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology

        Jazzman was born from the line 96a-8, a Chinese fragrant rice, crossed with Arkansas long-grain rice around 1997, then selected over 13 years to a pure line by "sniffing or tasting" the aroma only. There is no report that biotechnology was used to help in this breeding. This "tasting and sniffing" skill is the work of Chinese-descent researchers led by Associate Professor Sha of the Louisiana Ag Center. This group aimed at a clearly sweet aroma and also paid attention to keeping amylose at about 12–15 percent, very close to Khao Dawk Mali. It is the first time the US has had a low-amylose fragrant rice, and that is a clear signal aimed at Khao Dawk Mali. The care of this group of researchers gave Jazzman rice a soft, sticky, sweet fragrance, complete like jasmine rice. What is clearly missing is probably grain length: Jazzman is a "short-grain rice". But what is truly astonishing is the strong aroma together with yield. Jazzman has a strong aroma, with an aroma value as high as 597 ng/g (parts per billion, ppb), so fragrant that it is comparable to Khao Dawk Mali grown in Thung Kula Rong-Hai.

                 At the same time,the yield is as much as 1.2 tons/rai. Is Jazzman rice a competitor of Khao Dawk Mali? When the cooking properties of Jazzman are compared with Thai jasmine rice, there is no difference in aroma, % amylose or Alkaline Spreading Value. Given the texture described, fragrant, soft and sticky, it is probably like our jasmine rice, but the clear difference is grain length: Jazzman is a short-grain rice. Does this matter? For consumers addicted to the taste of Khao Dawk Mali, the slender length of the grains catches the consumer's eye and has become the rice's identity, just like India's basmati, whose grains are very long after cooking. Slenderness and length are therefore important. But looking deeper, Jazzman rice with an aroma compound level of more than 500 ppb at a yield of 1.2 tons/rai is, it must be admitted, frightening. Normally strongly fragrant rice does not yield very high. If Jazzman's figures hold true in many environments, Thailand should start research on improving yield and aroma compound level. So at this time Jazzman is not yet a frightening competitor, but in less than 3 years Arkansas could easily have a fragrant rice with longer grains, especially if biotechnology is used to help breeding, which would bring success quickly. Another point: growing fragrant rice in a temperate region such as the United States, where the average temperature of the rice growing season is much lower than Thailand's, if fertilizer and water are managed consistently, any fragrant rice variety will be more fragrant than when grown in the tropics like ours. So how should Thailand proceed?

                The pathsThai fragrant rice breeding has gone further than Arkansas's. As far as can be summarized, there are 3 paths. The Super Jasmine approach adds disease and insect tolerance and tolerance of limiting environments to Khao Dawk Mali without affecting most of Khao Dawk Mali's genetics, like a twin of the fragrant rice; the target area is the original rainfed Khao Dawk Mali area. The second approach focuses on improving the yield of fragrant rice alone, targeting irrigated fields. The third approach looks at fragrant rice from a nutrition angle, adding iron, zinc and anti-diabetic benefits while improving yield to more than 1 ton per rai in irrigated areas.

               The final approachis the most challenging, because Thai fragrant rice will step up in parallel with India's basmati but with a yield as high as Jazzman. So if all three of Thailand's paths proceed without a hitch, Thai fragrant rice will remain able to compete in the world market to a degree, but rice breeders cannot be complacent, because there are still competitors superior to Jazzman that use the aroma gene knowledge that has already been discovered; for example, we will certainly see the formidable presence of Australia, China and France on the fragrant rice stage. The road ahead for Thai fragrant rice therefore needs science to help. Science will help create further innovation, using the diversity of fragrant rice that Thailand has, to keep breeding work moving forward. So please let the various funds help support our researchers to do much more work on fragrant rice.