ORYZA DATED 21/01/2015 RUSSIAN RICE SECTOR SEEKS HIGHER YIELDS; RICE ACREAGE FAR FROM REACHING THE MAXIMUM LAND AVAILABLE The Russian rice growing sector has a tradition of seeking high-yielding varieties: the All-Russian Rice Research Center (ARRRI) of Krasnodar was established in 1931, and ever since has been busy in breeding varieties with high yield and agronomic traits adapted for various climatic zones, but also developing of resource-saving and environmental-safe technologies for rice growing, and seed farming. Professor Grigoriv Leonidovich Zelensky, teaching in Kuban State Agrarian University of Krasnodar, says, in the introduction of “Rice Blast Control with Release of Resistant Varieties”, that “For the population of Russia rice grain is a valuable food, dietary and wholesome product.” He adds that the main rice-growing area in the country is Krasnodar area, where more than 80% of Russian rice is farmed. The average yield has continually grown over the last decade. In 2012, a record a paddy yield of 7.11 tons per hectare was attained, farmed on 133,000 hectares. In general, total area that could be used to grow rice is more than 500,000 hectares, but it can vary from 140,000 to 200,000 hectares per year. Researcher Evgeny Kharitonov, of ARRRI, in his work “Problems of Growing Rice in Russia and Ways to solve them” notes that Russia’s rice growing area is one of the most Northern in the world. In Krasnodar breeding work started in 1932, during Soviet Union period: the rice gene pool includes 6,400 samples to work with; among them 97.6% are Japonica subspecies. The ancestors of modern Russian varieties are Kendzo, from Japan, k514, from China, Balilla, from Italy, and Saturn from the U.S. Now the breeders are working on finding salinity resistant varieties, including the variety Kurchanka, which is replacing Spalchik thanks to better yields, particularly in salty soils.
Posted on: Sat, 24 Jan 2015 08:56:32 +0000
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