In the ‘stronghold’ of domestic hybrid rice

Only 20 officials, including 3 doctors and 12 masters, are still researching on a 15-hectare campus, even though the area of ​​hybrid rice has decreased outside.

Dr. Le Hung Phong – Director of the Center for Research and Development of Hybrid Rice (Institute of Food and Food Plants) – with a new generation of hybrid rice. Photo: Duong Dinh Tuong. Advantages and disadvantages of domestic hybrid rice Dr. Le Hung Phong – Director of the Center for Research and Development of Hybrid Rice (Institute of Food Plants and Food Plants), who was black because of sunburn, just led me to visit the new generation hybrids mentioned. When he was a student at the University of Agriculture I, he himself chose to be a rice breeder, and his graduation thesis was also about hybrid rice, guided by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Tram. She advised: “If you like this job, then go to the Center for Research and Development of Hybrid Rice.” At that time, this unit was just established in 1994. Until now this is still the only research center in this field. According to Mr. Phong, if the southern part of the breed is mainly from the IRRI International Rice Research Institute, the northern part is mainly from China, both hybrid and pure. Research on hybrid rice in our country can be divided into several stages: From 1995 to 2000, we basically researched and perfected and mastered the technology of F1 seed production and production of parental lines imported from China. Country. From 2000 – 2010 mainly use the available Chinese mother line to cross with his father’s line. Therefore, the hybrid advantage in yield as well as quality of the domestic variety cannot exceed that of the imported Chinese variety. From there, we oriented, in addition to using imported materials from that source, to improve and introduce sterility genes, restore genes, and create new Vietnamese parent materials. In the period of 2011 – 2015, University of Agriculture I (now the Vietnam Academy of Agriculture) and the Center for Research and Development of Hybrid Rice under the Vietnam Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology (now part of the Food Crop Institute). food plants) has created parent lines with its own orientation such as E15S, T6S, AMS35S, D116S, AMS211A,14A… These are the mother lines of some quality Vietnamese hybrid rice varieties such as HQ19, Aromatic hybrid 6, HYT124… In the basic spring crop, we use Chinese hybrid rice varieties because they have more advantages in yield and shape, but the main crop uses two-line hybrid rice varieties produced in the country because of the short growing time, better resistance to pests and diseases, better quality. Currently, the quality of imported hybrid rice varieties is getting better and better, such as: Thai Xuyen 111; Ly2099; LP1601… Besides, we have also successfully chosen to create quality two-line hybrid rice varieties that can grow two crops in a year such as HQ19, Hybrid Aroma 6, HYT124, MCH2… Close-up of new hybrid rice. Photo: Duong Dinh Tuong. The general orientation of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is to select hybrid rice varieties that are resistant to pests and diseases, improve quality, and respond to climate change. Indeed, we also have success in breeding such as having parental lines for quality breeding, transferring genes for resistance to pests and diseases. So far, we have varieties that can be said to be of equal quality to the best imported hybrid rice today, Thai Xuyen 111 (sometimes selling up to 150,000 VND/kg), for example, two-line hybrid rice HQ19, HYT124, Hybrid aromatic 6, MCH2… with a selling price of 100,000 – 120,000 VND/kg, some promising three-line hybrid rice varieties, such as HYT325, HYT315, with rice seeds over 7mm long, clear rice, amylose content 16-18%, fragrant rice. However, one of the weaknesses of the domestic varieties is that the shape in the field is not as eye-catching as the Chinese hybrid rice varieties because they have technologies and genetic resources that not only create high yields, The quality and shape are still very nice… We have created our own parent lines from Chinese materials, unfortunately, we have not effectively exploited the male sterility genes from native rice and domestic wild rice. Select varieties in the direction of rice for export According to Mr. Phong, recently, the hybrid rice market has gone down because of the competition of high-quality pure rice, especially in the Red River Delta provinces. In addition, due to industrialization and urbanization, the area of ​​rice cultivation has decreased, the demand for food is not large, the price of imported seeds is high, and the source of seeds cannot be proactive while domestic goods can only meet 30-35 years. % need. The goal of developing hybrid rice in the coming time is not necessarily to increase the cultivated area, but to raise the proportion of domestic products from more than 30-35% to 40.50%…, conquering the market by high quality seeds. Dr. Le Hung Phong: “The results of our work up to now can be said to have not been as expected”. Photo: Duong Dinh Tuong. Dr. Le Hung Phong confided: “In the past, we used to joke: “Although hybrid rice is hybrid, the yield is still twice that of normal rice”, but in fact, research shows that “to create hybrid rice varieties, time Time and effort must be twice that of pure rice.” For example, the research time to select a pure rice variety can be 5 years, but it takes 10 years for hybrid rice. Moreover, the production of hybrid rice seeds by external pollination, depends a lot on weather conditions, on the characteristics of pollen recipients and pollens of the mother and father lines, whether parents combine to create an advantage or not… In short, the production of hybrid rice seeds requires a large investment but the risk is high, so well-known enterprises like ThaiBinhseed have not invested in the production of hybrid rice seeds, Vinaseed only focuses on the production of hybrid rice varieties. old system, easy to do like Nhi uu 838 and now it’s time to start with new varieties imported from China. Besides, there are also private enterprises, the provincial Seed Center has copyright like Cuong Tan Co., Ltd., Hai Phong High-Tech Agriculture Joint Stock Company, Lao Cai Seed Center, Thanh Hoa Institute of Agricultural Science, Vietseed … to invest in domestic hybrid rice production. Currently, the official hybrid rice research and breeding system only has the Crop Research and Development Institute of the Vietnam National Academy of Agriculture and the Hybrid Rice Research and Development Center of the Institute of Food Crops and Food Plants. . We are implementing a program to select and breed hybrid rice that is qualified for export. In addition, starting research on selecting hybrid rice varieties to cope with climate change. HYT 315 – new generation hybrid rice at the Center for Research and Development of Hybrid Rice. Photo: Duong Dinh Tuong. Making good seeds, but selling copyrights at this time is difficult because two or three successful harvests and one loss is zero production effort, so businesses are not eager. There is a new direction of combining with businesses to jointly invest, share profits as well as risks. The Center is now a partially autonomous (45-50%) non-business unit. The results of our work to date can be said to have not been as expected. For example, the phenotype of domestic hybrid rice compared with Chinese hybrid rice is still poor, and needs to be improved to be closer to imported varieties. What I regret most is that the opportunity to contribute to the development of domestic hybrid rice production is that at the time when HYT100 was recognized as a variety, there was no strong business to invest in it. The quality of the HYT100 is good, but there are difficulties in seed production, which are also common weaknesses of quality hybrid rice varieties. If this weakness can be improved, the opportunity for development will be better. I think there are still many things that can be exploited and believe that hybrid rice will grow well. I used to go to an expert in Africa where rice is only for invited guests, proving that the rice grain still plays a huge role in the world with densely populated countries or need to ensure food security. In order to develop hybrid rice and pure rice in particular and the seed industry in general, if the State and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development do not have policies to invest in-depth in domestic research, it will be difficult to compete with foreign products. Large enterprises, with a lot of money, only invest in research at the level of exploration and testing of varieties, not in-depth research. Therefore, appropriate attention and investment is still needed for non-business units doing research to ensure continuity and to produce good products.