Hom Malai Man Rice

The New Soft Fragrant Non-Glutinous Rice "Hom Malai Man"

To increase the efficiency of soft fragrant rice production, the Center of Excellence for Precision Rice Breeding for Food Security, Quality and Nutrition, a joint unit of the Rice Science Center, Kasetsart University, and the National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, has been selecting soft fragrant rice lines that resist disease and insects and tolerate flash floods, with high yield under sufficiency cultivation and sustainable cultivation, resulting in new short-duration, high-yielding fragrant rice lines coming to market.

Variety characteristics and the origin of Hom Malai Man

• Arose from a mutation of Hom Nin non-glutinous rice by fast neutron irradiation
• Mutations were found at the aroma gene locus, the color-control gene and others, giving rise to several fragrant lines
• Hom Malai Man has a short harvest age: 110–115 days when transplanted, 95 days when broadcast
• Milled rice grains are extra long, 7.5–7.9 mm
• Amylose content = 15–16%, clear white grains, soft cooking quality
• Strong aroma even when grown in the central region
• Moderate resistance to disease and insects
• Easy to grow and not a heavy fertilizer feeder; with sufficiency-level fertilizer it gives good yields under organic, sufficiency and sustainable farming
• Under organic farming, Hom Malai Man yields 500–600 kg/rai at 14% moisture, higher than the Vietnamese short-duration fragrant rice ST24, which yields 250–300 kg/rai
• Hom Malai Man has longer grains than ST24 but is slightly less slender than ST24
• Photoperiod insensitive, can be grown all year round

Precision agriculture to raise aroma

Consumers today feel that fragrant rice has become less fragrant. Developing new fragrant rice varieties that produce more aroma compounds is one part of the answer, but another part is stimulating the aroma-forming process through the planting season, fertilizer, nutrients, water and aroma-stimulating substances. Cool weather, water deficit and salinity during grain filling make rice more fragrant but lower yield, while chemical fertilizer aimed at maximum yield, on the contrary, reduces aroma accumulation in the grain. The Rice Science Center, together with the National Innovation Agency, has developed a way of growing fragrant rice to be more fragrant, called the aroma-stimulating technique. This technique can increase aroma accumulation by more than 30% in jasmine rice, while also increasing yield and rice quality at only a small added cost, making fragrant rice more desired by consumers and able to fetch higher prices.