New rice varieties adapted to climate change in the Mekong River Delta of Vietnam

Abstract

Although Vietnam is the second largest rice exporter in the world, the country has only recently met the demand for sustainable food supply at a national level, and not yet at a household one. In the early 1970s, the average rice yield in the Mekong River Delta (MRD) was 1.9 tons/ ha and the annual production weighed 4 million tons. The current rice productivity and production has gained over 6 tons/ha and 24 million tons/year, respectively. This is a substantial increase. This progress in the MRD is in brief, due mostly to (1) Government policy, (2) Water management, and (3) Technological innovation and application with an emphasis on varietal improvement. As an impact of the ongoing El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) phenomenon, severe droughts and salinity intrusion has been occurring in Vietnam’s MRD and has caused varying degrees of damage to agriculture, fisheries and the livelihoods of people in the region. New rice genotypes have been released via both conventional breeding and marker-assisted selection. The introgression of target genes from wild species viz. Oryza officinalis, O. australiensis, O. rufipogon into cultivars has been conducted successfully. Commercial rice varieties, which are currently growing in the MRD for export, are listed as Jasmine 85, OM3536, OM4900, IR64, OM6162, ST3, ST5...

Keywords

• climate change
• El Nino
• gene introgression
• marker-assisted selection
• wild rice