The ancient African rice that could help farmers grapple with climate change

illuminem summarises for you the essential news of the day, reviewed by our editorial team. Read the full piece on RFI or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: Researchers are looking to ancient African rice (Oryza glaberrima) for traits that could make modern rice more resilient to drought, heat, pests, poor soils and flooding
• A new study from Nanjing Agricultural University has identified a genetic mechanism that helps explain why African and Asian rice can struggle to produce fertile offspring, potentially making it easier for breeders to transfer useful traits

🔭 The context: African rice evolved under challenging West African conditions but was largely displaced by Asian rice because it is harder to harvest
• Researchers screened 2,093 rice samples in Benin and Nigeria, identifying 15 with more than 80% of their flowering occurring before 9am, a trait that could help plants avoid the worst heat during flowering
• Previous breeding efforts produced 82 Nerica varieties by crossing African and Asian rice, but fertility barriers have limited the range of traits that can be transferred

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Climate change is increasing heat and water stress in farming systems
• Unlocking African rice's genetic diversity could help develop crops that maintain yields under harsher conditions, potentially strengthening food resilience without requiring entirely new crops

⏭️ What’s next: The newly identified genetic mechanism does not yet produce a farmer-ready variety
• Researchers still need to overcome other fertility barriers and test whether transferred traits perform reliably in the field

💬 One quote: “Of course, farmers in Africa.” — Koichi Futakuchi, AfricaRice

📈 One stat: AfricaRice maintains more than 4,000 genetically distinct samples of African rice, providing a large pool of traits for future breeding

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