Successfully crossbred two rice varieties that are resistant to drought, acid sulfate soils and salinity.

The Mekong Delta Rice Institute has just successfully crossbred two more rice varieties that are resistant to acid sulfate soil, salinity and drought, OM 8901 and OM 7262.

Mr. Pham Van Quynh, Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Can Tho, said that the OM 8901 rice variety is a purebred rice variety, has good drought resistance, stable high yield, good rice quality, resistance to many types of pests and diseases, selected and tested at the Mekong Delta Rice Institute, provincial seed centers in the Mekong Delta region, five eastern provinces and seven central provinces from 2009 to present.

Rice variety OM 8901. (Source: cantho.gov.vn)

The results show that this rice variety grows well in many different lands, especially suitable for the soil in the provinces of Vinh Long, Kien Giang, Hau Giang, An Giang, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh, Binh Thuan and Can Tho city because it gives very high yield.

OM 8901 is also a specialty variety, short-term (90-105 days), with good tillering, slightly stiff plants, long panicles, high number of solid grains per panicle (80-90%), tightly packed grains (clustered panicles), long rice grains (7.1cm), sticky rice, high yield (6-8 tons/ha), the rate of whole rice after milling is over 80%, the rice grains are bright and beautiful, not chalky. However, this variety is susceptible to brown planthoppers and rice blast at a mild level. Therefore, when using this variety, farmers need to pay more attention to fertilization techniques, seasonal factors, especially, should not let the rice be deeply flooded because it will increase the growing time and increase the number of rice plants that fall in the field near harvest time, leading to reduced yield and quality of rice grains.

The OM 7262 rice variety was bred using traditional hybridization methods, with the advantages of being resistant to alum and salinity, having stable high yields, good rice quality, and being resistant to many pests and diseases, especially blast and leaf blight. This variety has been selected and tested at provincial seed centers in the Mekong Delta, five eastern provinces and seven central provinces since 2010. The results show that the rice grows well on many different lands in the Mekong Delta, the Southeast and the Central regions, especially suitable for the soil of Hau Giang, An Giang provinces and Can Tho city.

OM 7262 is a special variety, short-term (90-100 days), with good tillering, strong plants, long panicles, high number of solid grains per panicle (90%), heavy grains, tightly packed grains, long rice grains (7.1cm), high yield (6-8 tons/ha), sticky rice, the proportion of whole rice after milling reaches 68%, meeting export standards. However, the above rice variety is slightly infected with brown planthoppers (level 5) under artificial filtering pressure. Therefore, the Mekong Delta Rice Institute recommends that farmers when using this variety need to pay more attention to the brown planthopper factor, in which they should pay attention to not let the rice dry out when the density of planthoppers increases at the tillering to milk stage. This method will help limit the harmful effects of brown planthoppers on rice.

According to Mr. Le Van Banh, Director of the Mekong Delta Rice Institute, up to now, the Institute has selected and bred 32 rice varieties that are resistant to alum, salinity, drought, and meet export standards. The above rice varieties have been put into mass production in the coastal provinces of the Mekong Delta, the Long Xuyen Quadrangle, Dong Thap Muoi, and the Ca Mau Peninsula, yielding 5-8 tons/ha per crop, contributing to raising the rice output of the Mekong Delta by the end of 2014 to more than 25 million tons, double that of 1995./.

According to Vietnam+