Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Cong Tan told a four-day international symposium entitled Hybrid vigour in rice for food security, poverty alleviation, and environmental protection that although Viet Nam was lagging behind many other countries, it had made impressive strides in developing hybrid rice.

He said the decision to hold the conference in Ha Noi recognised the extensive and rapid adoption of this technology in the country over the past five years.

The event is being co-sponsored by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Viet Nam’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the China National Hybrid Rice Research and Development Centre.

Participants were told that hybrid rice can achieve substantially higher yields through a process known as heterosis, or hybrid vigour, which enables the offspring of two genetically different plants to produce more grain then either parent.

According to Ren Wang, deputy research director at the IRRI, hybrid rice varieties now being used by farmers in countries such as Viet Nam and the Philippines have allowed them to increase their yields well beyond the level of the modern, semi-dwarf, inbred high-yielding varieties used previously.

Since 1979, more than 20 tropical countries have begun developing this technology, under the leadership of Dr. Sant S. Virmani, plant breeder and deputy head of the institute’s Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biochemistry Division.

Dr. Virmani said that in 2001, more than 700,000ha of hybrid rice crop was planted in irrigated areas across the Asia-Pacific, including in Viet Nam (480,000ha), India (200,000ha), Bangladesh (15,000ha), the Philippines (5,000ha), Myanmar (10,000ha) and the US (10,000ha).

In Viet Nam, farmers are trying to produce an amount of hybrid rice varieties sufficient for domestic cultivation, and are aiming to shift areas of low-yielding rice crop to other subsidiaries.

It is thought that this will ensure food security, develop a stable agricultural system, protect the environment and raise farmers’ incomes.

From just 100ha in 1991, Viet Nam now boasts 480,000ha of hybrid rice fields. Farmers are developing the three-line hybrid rice technology, and research continues into two-line hybrid rice.

The nation-wide average yield of hybrid rice is about 1.5 to 2 tonnes per ha more than that of pure line varieties.

"Thanks to the State’s policy on rice production development, launched in 1989, Viet Nam has not only met domestic demand, despite a rapid population increase, but has also exported nearly 34 million tonnes of rice, earning US$7.5 billion," Deputy PM Tan said.

The work has made a great contribution to alleviating hunger and reducing poverty, ensuring national food security, developing the economy and protecting the environment.

Hybrid rice is also being grown in highland areas and ethnic settlements, which has helped alleviate hunger and poverty and prevent forest destruction.

The Hai Phong Agricultural Economics and Service Company, a leading producer of rice hybrid F1, has produced 204ha of F1, which yields 2.5-3 tonnes per ha.

Company director Phan Thi Cang said 200 tonnes of this had been planted in the northern provinces.

The area of hybrid rice F1 has been widely expanded: the country last year harvested 1,450ha, with an average capacity of 1,700kg, or two tonnes per ha.

Ngo said the Vietnamese Government was planning to boost research and development into hybrid strains.

He expressed Viet Nam’s profound gratitude to the FAO, the IRRI, Chinese and Indian scientists, and other countries who have helped or will help Viet Nam develop agriculture in general and hybrid rice strains in particular.

At the symposium, it was agreed that co-operation between the State and private sector would be a key factor in the successful development of hybrid rice. — VNS