For further information contact: ciat-rice@cgiar.org

Last update: 22 April 2009

Now On-line

2008 Annual Report

See the latest progress report of the Improved Rice for Latin America and the Caribbean Project, which presents project research highlights during 2008, as well as detailed descriptions of its major activities.

Download the executive summary (252 kb).

Download the report (1773 kb).

FAO Approves Rice Research Project

The project "Exploting Rice Genetic Resources in Latin America and the Caribbean through Training Programs in Genetic Improvement and Germplasm Exchange" was launched during a meeting of the group for Rice population improvement (GRUMEGA) in Chillán, Chile, on 27 February 2006.

The project will be coordinated by the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA) at Quilamapu, Chillán. By using the innovative "Population improvement" methods, INIA has generated several high-yielding varieties adapted to the cold climate often found in Chile, the world's most southern rice-producing region. Through networking and Internet, the project will focus on the sustainable use of rice genetic resources, promoting and facilitating exchange of germplasm and information. The project will also train, through courses and workshops, Latin American and Caribbean rice breeders in the techniques of population improvement. At a cost of US$340,000, the project will be funded by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for 2006 and 2007.

More information (in Spanish).

Participatory Rice Research: An Entry Point for Crop Diversification

For many people rice conjures up the image of a big internationally traded commodity, a cash crop produced on large tracts of irrigated land using modern mechanized methods. But in Central America, as in many other parts of the world, this image doesn't fit reality. In Nicaragua, for example, about two-thirds of rice production is cultivated under rainfed conditions, most often by small farmers using traditional techniques.

CIAT's rice research project focuses on these small producers and, to a lesser extent, on medium-scale producers in Latin America. While upland rice provides them with some cash and a measure of food security, the international price is so low that earnings are rarely enough to pull rural families out of poverty.

See the complete text in the latest issue of our corporate annual report, CIAT in Focus 2004-2005: Getting a Handle on High-Value Agriculture

Contact: Gilles Trouche

New Rice Variety in Brazil

Cultivar BRSMG Seleta

A new rice variety was released in Brazil by the Várzea Rice Genetic Improvement Program of the Agricultural Research Company of Minas Gerais State (EPAMIG).

The elite cultivar BRSMG has already been positioned in the market of Minas Gerais.

This new variety is the product of a joint research effort between EPAMIG and EMBRAPA Rice and Beans, an alliance that aims to develop high yielding crops, resistant to diseases and with good-quality grain for industrial and culinary purposes.

For more information visit: http://www.cnpaf.embrapa.br/arroz/seleta.htm.

New FAO publication

Population Improvement: A Way of Exploiting the Rice Genetic Resources of Latin America

This publication is the third of a series that aims to document progress made in the advanced use of rice genetic resources in Latin America. It focuses on the methodology of population improvement used in the context of the network formed by the Group for the Advanced Genetic Improvement of Rice (GRUMEGA, its Spanish acronym).

With support from CIAT (Cali, Colombia), Embrapa Arroz e Feijão (Goiânia, Brazil) and CIRAD (Montpellier, France), a group of countries—that is, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Uruguay and Venezuela—began, in 1996, its journey towards understanding and using rice population improvement through recurrent selection. As is generally known, this methodology was developed for allogamous crops, and the rice crop has had to be adapted for self-reproduction, using the recessive gene for male sterility.

See the publication at the FAO Web site.

Contact: Marc Châtel

Study guide on-line (only available in Spanish)

Morphology of the Rice Plant

Understanding the plant and its morphology is important for conducting research on rice (Oryza sativa L.) because it provides the basis for differentiating varieties and for conducting physiological and breeding studies. The study guide describes the shape of the rice plant's organs, that is, its roots, stems, leaves, inflorescences, and grains, and seedling development.

See the guide as HTML (in Spanish).

Download the guide (in Spanish, 544 kb).

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