Agri-biotech firm Maharashtra Hybrid Seeds company (Mahyco) today said it has achieved a pipeline advancement target for development of salinity tolerant (ST) rice in collaboration with US-based agricultural technology company Arcadia Biosciences.
In two years of initial field trials, rice varieties with Arcadia's Salinity Tolerance (ST) trait showed a double- digit increase under saline conditions with no loss of yield under normal conditions, Mahyco said in a release here.
"With the conclusion of the salinity tolerant rice trials, we are able to identify lines which have shown superior performance in acute salt-stress conditions," Mahyco Chief Technology Officer Usha Barwale Zehr said.
Mahyco will be advancing these lead ST rice lines into their trait introgression programme and conducting further multi-location field trials to validate trait performance, which is a step towards product development and commercial advancement for both companies.
"We will now move forward to incorporate these rice lines into elite materials to bring commercial benefits for rice growers," Zehr said.
The global cost of lost crop yield to salt-induced land degradation is estimated to be USD 27.3 billion per year, according to the United Nations Natural Resources Forum.
Of the world's 568 million acres of irrigated land, 111 million acres, or about 20 per cent, are estimated to be salt-affected.
Arcadia's Salinity Tolerance trait enables plants to produce increased yields under conditions of elevated salinity, expanding the range of usable acreage for crop production and reducing requirements for fresh water.
The trait is in Phase 3 of development, and the trait has been applied to a wide range of crops, including wheat, rice, cotton, sugarcane and vegetables.
Rice is the world's most valuable crop grown on more
than 405 million acres globally with a harvest value of USD 328 billion in 2013, according to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Salinity stress occurs globally where irrigation is prevalent and ground water supplies are salinised due to seawater intrusion and soil is salinised due to mineral deposits. Such areas are common in North America, India, China, Australia and other regions of Asia.
"This development is an important milestone for us and Mahyco in terms of the additional value salt-tolerance traits could have on rice productivity," Arcadia Biosciences interim President and CEO Roger Salameh said.
More importantly, salinity tolerance is just one of a number of high-value yield traits currently under development in the Arcadia-Mahyco collaboration, he added.
