Report of the Department of Crop Production on rice variety BC15
BC15 is a purebred rice variety, selected from IR17494 (13/2) variety, recognized as a national variety by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in Decision No. 319/QD-CLT dated December 15, 2008.
This is a high-yield rice variety with good quality rice, which has been adopted by many localities and quickly expanded into production. However, the BC15 rice variety also has some disadvantages such as being susceptible to blast and sensitive to low temperatures, and having poor cold tolerance.
In the 2012-2013 winter-spring crop, Thai Binh Seed Corporation supplied and produced more than 3,000 tons of seeds for the provinces in the Red River Delta, the Northern midlands and mountainous areas, the North Central, the South Central and the South. According to incomplete statistics, some provinces have a large area of BC15 seed sown in the 2012-2013 winter-spring crop such as Thai Binh with about 25,000 hectares, accounting for more than 25% of the area.
Up to this point, BC15 late spring rice (sown around the beginning of spring, transplanted after Lunar New Year) in Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Ha Nam, Bac Giang... has grown and developed well, blooming concentratedly since May 5, expected to yield high yields. However, in Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and some northern midland and mountainous provinces such as Vinh Phuc, Tuyen Quang... some areas of BC15 rice blooming at the end of April have low grain setting rate, yield reduction from 30 to over 70%.
BC15 rice yielded high yield in spring crop 2012 in Quynh Luu
Faced with the above situation, the Department of Crop Production has sent two working groups, in coordination with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Thanh Hoa and Nghe An to assess the extent of damage, causes and propose solutions. Based on the reports of the working groups, the reports of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Thanh Hoa (No. 868/SNN&PTNT-TT dated May 15, 2013), the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghe An (No. 153/SNN-TT dated May 14, 2013), the report of Thai Binh Seed Corporation (No. 03/BC-TSC dated May 13, 2013), the Department of Crop Production assessed:
1.Damage situation
a) Thanh Hoa Province
According to the report of Thai Binh Seed Corporation, in the winter-spring crop of 2012 - 2013, the Corporation supplied Thanh Hoa province with about 300 tons of seeds, equivalent to about 7,500 hectares of planting. The damaged area was about 3,370 hectares (Thach Thanh 565 hectares, Nong Cong 670 hectares, Tho Xuan 750 hectares, Yen Dinh 608 hectares and some other districts), of which the damaged area of over 70% was about 2,450 hectares, the damaged area of 30-70% was about 870 hectares.
b) Nghe An province
In the 2012-2013 winter-spring crop, the whole province planted about 8,000 hectares of BC15 rice, concentrated in Quynh Luu (about 3,600 hectares), Yen Thanh (about 3,300 hectares), Dien Chau (about 863 hectares)... The damaged area was about 3,000 hectares (Quynh Luu about 1,600 hectares, Dien Chau about 450 hectares, Yen Thanh about 650 hectares, Nghia Dan about 100 hectares, Do Luong about 50 hectares and other districts), of which the severely damaged area was over 70% about 2,000 hectares, the damage from 30 - 70% was about 1,000 hectares.
2. Causes
Based on the actual assessment of the time and method of seedling making, the time of transplanting and flowering of damaged rice in conjunction with the weather developments in the localities, the Department of Crop Production agreed with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Thanh Hoa and Nghe An that the reason was that from April 7 to 15, 2013, there were many cold air waves, with some days the temperature dropped below 17 - 18 degrees Celsius.oC, lowest measured at Tinh Gia 16.6oC (April 12, 2013). This is the time coinciding with the stage of panicle differentiation of BC15 rice that was damaged, whileBC15 variety is derived from IR17494 (13/2), so it is sensitive to low temperatures, especially at differentiation stage 5 - 6.
Low temperature is the main cause of abnormal development of rice flowers (short and small stamens, not extending for pollination, degenerated pollen, reduced vitality). The difference in the time of differentiation between female flowers and spikelets, between flowers at the beginning and end of the spike, between rice clumps near the bank and in the middle of the field... leads to differences in the level of damage in the same field, same clump, same rice flower.
In addition, from April 23 to 28, the time of flowering and pollination of BC15 rice was damaged by heavy rain (data in Quynh Luu were 93.7 mm and 86 mm). Actual inspections in localities showed that BC15 rice flowers blooming before or after the above time were normal, giving high yield.
3. Proposal and recommendation
a) Regarding support for farmers: The Department of Crop Production agrees with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Thanh Hoa and Nghe An as follows:
- Propose that the People's Committees of the provinces submit to the Government support from the state budget according to Decree 42/2012/ND-CP dated May 11, 2012 of the Government on management and use of rice-growing land and Decision 142/2009/QD-TTg dated December 31, 2009.On the mechanism and policies to support plant varieties, livestock and aquatic products to restore production in areas damaged by natural disasters and epidemics; Decision 49/2012/QD-TTg dated November 8, 2012 of the Prime Minister on amending and supplementing Article 3 of Decision 142/2009/QD-TTg.
- Propose that Thai Binh Seed Corporation discuss with localities to partially support the damage, helping farmers restore production in the summer-autumn crop, 2013 season.
b) Regarding the continued use of BC15 as the main rice variety in the 2013 crop as proposed by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Thanh Hoa: The Department of Crop Production believes that BC15 is a good rice variety with many advantages, so in recent years it has been selected by the province as one of the main varieties in the crop. The above limitations regarding blast infection and cold resistance are almost unlikely to occur in the crop, so the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Thanh Hoa needs to provide guidance so that farmers can continue production with peace of mind.
According to (NNVN) - LC
