Page 6 - Molecular Plant Breeding

Molecular Plant Breeding 2011, Vol.2, No.11, 75-82
http://mpb.sophiapublisher.com
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by Dr. Jones set up a research program based on
biotechnological tools. Working in association with
partners from across Africa and overseas, the team
collected and classified all available rice strains
(including a gene bank of 1 500 strains of the native
O. glaberrima species, which had been in danger of
extinction). They then began the painstaking process
of selecting parents for the best combination of
characteristics, crossing them to produce offspring and
backcrossing the offspring with the O. s ativa parent to
fix the desired traits; after a series of failures, they
turned to “embryo rescue” techniques, in which the
cross fertilized embryos, were grown on artificial
media. By the mid 1990s they succeeded in producing
robustly fertile plants, and so the first New Rice for
Africa (NERICA) was born. Field testing of the new
rice started in 1994, and with improved techniques
many more lines were generated each year. There are
now more than 3 000 NERICA lines. NERICA was
developed using complex embryo rescue techniques to
cross the Asian Oryza sativa rice with the African
Oryza glaberrima rice. The first Nerica variety was
developed in 1994 by researchers at the Africa Rice
center using an Oryza sativa japonica variety (WAB56-
104) and an African Oryza glaberrima variety (CG14).
The researchers have developed several other hybrids,
working with Japanese researchers on the Interspecific
Hybridization Project (IHP), financed by the Japanese
government, the US Rockefeller Foundation and the
United Nations Development Program (UNDP). These
interspecific hybrids were supposed to combine the
best traits of both of the two parents such as the high
yield of their Asian parent and the adaptability to local
conditions of their African parent.
At first, the NERICA researchers insisted that they did
not intend NERICA to replace local diversity. Indeed,
the incorporation of new seeds is nothing new for
African farmers. New varieties are often mixed with
old and become part of the selection process,
contributing to the local genetic heritage, and now it is
perfectly adapted to the harsh growing environment
and low-input conditions of upland rice ecologies in
sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where smallholder farmers
lack the means to irrigate and apply chemical fer-
tilizers or pesticides and it responds even better to
higher inputs. The NERICA appears to offer a rich
source of genetic resistance to drought, weed com-
petition, blast, virus diseases and soil acidity and iron
toxicity (Dingkuhn et al., 1998; Diagne, 2006).
Since its creation in the mid -1990s, the New Rice for
Africa (NERICA) has carved a special niche for itself
among upland rice farmers in sub-Saharan Africa
(SSA). Today, it is a symbol of hope for food security
in SSA.
1 The new rice for Africa: Origins and no-
menclature
1.1 NERICA’s meaning
The term NERICA stands for “NEw RICe for Africa”
an extended family of some 3 000 siblings. The agro-
physiological traits of NERICA can not be generalized
because of the large variation existing amongst
NERICA varieties.
NERICA is used to refer to genetic material derived
from the successful crossing that combine the best
traits of both of the two species of cultivated rice, the
African rice (O. glaberrima Steud) and the Asian rice
( O. sativa L.), to produce progeny (know as inter-
specifics) with high yields potential from the Asian
parent and the ability from the african parent to thrive
in harsh environments. In 2000, the results from this
breeding were denominate New Rice for Africa
(NERICA).
According to its researchers, NERICA is produced
through conventional crossbreeding and is therefore
not genetically modified rice. It is a new group of
upland rice varieties that perfectly adapt to the rainfed
upland ecology in sub-saharian Africa (SSA), where
smallholder farmers lack the means to irrigate or apply
chemical fertilizers or pesticides. However, NERICA
also respond even better than traditional varieties to
higher inputs.
1.2 NERICA’s development program
According to the Africa rice center annual reports, the
NERICA rice varieties were developed at the Africa
Rice Center. In the early 1990s, a team of rice
breeders developed stable and fertile progeny from
crosses between Asian rice, O. sativa L. and African
rice, O. glaberrima Steud (Jones et al., 1997a; 1997b).