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Speeding Up Research on Rice Varieties That Tolerate Climate Change 6 May 2016, 11:05:00
By the end of this year, Thailand is expected to be able to research and develop rice varieties that tolerate environmental conditions, especially heat and drought tolerance, to give farmers an option to grow.
Dr. Apichart Vanavichit, Director of the Rice Science Center, Kasetsart University, said that in the past 2–3 years rice yields have been affected by weather, including hotter temperatures, rain and floods, reducing yields. The Rice Gene Discovery Unit, a joint research unit of BIOTEC and Kasetsart University, is speeding up the development of rice varieties tolerant of environmental conditions, and expects by the end of this year to be able to research rice varieties that tolerate heat, drought and salinity, as an option for farmers to grow.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives has set a target area for promoting main-crop rice growing in the 2016/17 production season of about 61 million rai, with a main-crop yield of 23.29 million tons of paddy and second-crop rice of 3.88 million tons of paddy. Areas where rice growing is not suitable should switch to other crops, alongside controlling rice yield quality to match market demand at home and abroad and reducing damage from disasters and insect pest outbreaks.
