RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF HYBRID RICE IN VIETNAM

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF HYBRID RICE IN VIETNAM contraints and perpectives *Nguyen Tri Hoan , Le Quoc Thanh Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences * Pham Dong Quang Minister Of Agriculture and Rural Development *Ngo Van giao Vietnam Seed Trade Association *Duong Tai Southern Joint-stock Seed Company Role of agriculture in Vietnam’s economy Vietnam is predominantly an agricultural economy, based on paddy rice production Among the other edible crops, maize, sweet potato, cassava, vegetables are most important Rubber, coffee, tea, coconut, sugarcane are the most important industrial plants Vietnam is an agriculture-based country with more than 73% of population depending on the agriculture Rice is the most important crop with cultivated area is 7.27,6 million ha, maize 1.2 mil ha; Almost rice variety are inbred ones, hybrid varieties accounting for around 700,000 Rice variety improvement is on the top of priority for rice research during last two decades Achivements in rice production in Vietnam during 20 years, from 1986 - 2005: Average yield of rice increaced from 2.81 to 4.93 tons/ha (1.7 times ) Total rice production increased from 16 to 36 million tons; Rice export increased from 0.06 to 5.2 million tons (2013 : Aver yield 5,58 tons/ha, production 44 mill.tons, exported 6.7 mil.tons) Table 1: Area, Yield and production of rice in Vietnam during 2001-2013 (Source :Statitical Department) Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Area Yield Production (1000 ha) 7,492.0 7,504.3 7,452.1 7,329.2 7,329.2 7,324.8 7,207.4 7,400.2 7,440.1 6,990.5 7,651.4 7,761.3 7,900.7 (ton/ha) 4.29 4.59 4.64 4.86 4.89 4.89 4.99 5.23 5.23 5.72 5.53 5.64 5.58 (1000 tons) 32,108.4 34,447.2 34,568.8 36,148.9 35,832.9 35,849.5 35,942.7 38,729.8 38,895.5 39,988.9 42,324.9 43,737.6 44,053.0 Table : Rice exported of Vietnam during 2001-2013 Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 Rice exported Quantity(mili ton) 3.729 3.241 3.813 4.060 5.250 4.643 4.558 4.742 5.958 6.886 7.128 7.720 6.681 Value (mil.USD) 625 726 721 950 1.407 1.276 1.490 2.894 2.664 3.248 3.519 3.450 2.893 Price (USD)/ton 168 224 189 234 268 275 327 610 447 472 494 447 433 Investment, especially in irrigation system Application of advanced technologies New rice improved varieties: - 149 varieties from 1986 to 2005 - 45,1% VN rice varieties were applied in the production New advanced technologies widely applied: INM, IPM, ICM, “3 giam tang”, … Hybrid rice: 600.000 - 700.000 ha/year II PROGRESS IN HYBRID RICE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT IN VIETNAM HYBRID RICE SEED IMPORTATION Every year, Vietnam imported 13,000 to 15,000 tons of hybrid rice seeds The total volume of imported seeds is decreasing, in which seeds imported from China decreased gradually, but from other countries increased, especially   2010   Source of F1 Volume seed (Kg) % 14,983,91 Importation 71.61 12,554,19 - From China 60.00 - From other countries 2,429,725 11.61 Domestic production 5,940,000 28.39 for tropical rice hybrids 2011   2012   Volume Volume (Kg) % (Kg) % 14,002,75 12,994,60 73.80 72.90 11,757,30 61.96 9,645,400 54.11 2,245,450 11.83 3,349,200 18.79 4,972,000 26.20 4,830,000 27.10 Table16: Area, yield of hybrid rice during 2001 - 2013) III Contraints and gaps in Hybrid rice research and develpment Technology constraints: *Lack of hybrid rice combination with good grain quality, tolerant to pest and diseases, short duration (105 – 110 days) that meet requirements of the various agro-ecological zones of the country.Yield of F1 seed production is still low  *Limited genetic materials needed to developed hybrid rice suited to south Vietnam and with resistance to pests and diseases during the summer crop in the North Hybrid rice are good resistant to Blast but they showed more susceptible to Brown Plant Hopper and Bacterial Leaf Blight *Quality of first generation rice hybrids are poor to medium quality In general, broken grains of hybrid rice is higher than in inbred rice Social and economic constraints - When food security of the country have been controlled Vietnam exported 7-8 million tons of milled rice to the World market with low price lead to lower benefit of the rice growers as well as lower demand for hybrid rice cultivation of rice growers The living standard of Vietnamese of people sharply increased since last 20 years lead to high demand for higher quality rice in domestic market Therefore large area of hybrid rice cultivation at the Red River Delta turned back to be planted by quality rice -     Lack of strong local seed production system involving private sectors Lack of good cooperation between Hybrid rice Breeders and seed companies Lack of building optimum locations for investing in F1 seed production Reluctance of small farmers to locally produce hybrid rice seeds due to greater risk, very high financial requirement, lack of proper warehouse, space and cold storage for unsold seeds and farmer preference for imported seeds Capability constraints -The human resources required for hybrid rice research is higher in term of quantity as well as quality than inbred rice research However, very few rice scientist have been trained and worked full time for hybrid rice breeding and hybrid rice seed production -The exploitation of biotechnology for hybrid rice research is still less and cooperation between hybrid rice breeder with biotechnologist, entomologist, pathologist are not good for hybrid rice breeding -Facility for hybrid rice research in the Public sector and infrastructure for hybrid rice seed production of the companies involved with F1 seed production in Vietnam are poorly established Policy constraints -Lack of insurance for F1 seed production while F1 seed production faces high risk due to climatic changes in recent years -Policy of Vietnam Government give free for importing F1 seed from outside not promote in country F1 seed production Most of small seed companies was preferred to involving in distribution F1 seed imported from outside -Subsidized fund from government declined to 250 USD/ha for only demonstration fields and cost of fertilizers increased lead to F1 seed production area decreased Subsidized fund only for new hybrids lead to more hybrids in commercial production,The growers faced problems in production -The cooperatives involved in F1 seed production lead to difficulties to distribute F1 seeds Environment Constraints None suitable condition for hybrid rice seed production in the North where hybrid rice is mostly cultivated to date, due to erratic climate and late harvesting time Hence the need to develop alternative seed production site in the Central and Cuu long River Delta provinces (Quang nam, Daklak, Long an, Hau giang ect ) IV Lesson learnt For achievement of hybrid rice development need -Policy support : Top leadership of the country have to confirm to invest in hybrid rice research and development of hybrid rice and have to develop strategy of the country for research and development of hybrid rice for his country -The country have to invest in Hybrid rice research involving rice breeder, entomologist, pathologist biotechnologist , agronomist soil science scientists to cooperate in research for development of hybrid rice or applying hybrid rice technology -It is required scientists to be full-time imployment ,working long term in hybrid rice research and development of hybrid rice The scientists should be trained in hybrid rice technology, the required equipment for research should be provided - It is required to have tightly cooperation between hybrid rice research institutions with hybrid rice seed companies for exploitation of new hybrid rice combination in to commercial rice production IV Lesson learnt (cont.) -It is needed to have partnership between public and private sectors for hybrid rice development The development of technology, new hybrid should be done be public sector, the seed production and seed distribution should be done by private sector -It is required to develop suitable package of management for different type of hybrids to exploit full yield potential of hybrid rice -Hybrid rice is top required for the country to keep food security and intensively invest in rice production -For success of hybrid rice development , the support from FAO, IRRI for funding and International technology consultant keep very important role V Opportunity for hybrid rice development -High quality hybrid rice have been developed and exploiting in large scale in different countries viz HYT100 of Vietnam, SL 8H of Agritech-Philippine, Syn6 from China etc Their yields reached 8-10 tons/ha and their quality are similar to quality inbred rice -Successful development of supper high yielding hybrid rice in China in commercial exploitation (12-14 tons/ha) In Vietnam, yield of super high yielding hybrids developed in the country gave 11-12 tons/ha in demonstration plots -It is expecting that Supper high yielding hybrid rice will play crucial role to ensure food security for rice growing nations in Asia in future as well as high quantity of rice can be used for feeding livestock - High development of biotechnology tool in recent years can be exploited for hybrid rice development to develop rice hybrid with high yield, good quality, resistance to diseases and insects and good tolerance to high stress conditions created by climate changes - Rapidly development of private sector in hybrid rice seed production and partnership between –public and private sectors is believed to be main factor for sustainable of hybrid rice development in Asia VI Key strategies and policy options to promote hybrid rice development in Viet nam to 2020 and 2030 -Exploiting advantage of agriculture research system by cooperating hybrid rice breeders with biotechnologists, entomologists , pathologists, agronomists ect to develop hybrid rice having high yield, good quality, resistance to major diseases and insects and/ or tolerance to stress conditions ( drought Saline, submergence, ect.) created by climate changes -Strengthening research and development of supper high yielding hybrid rice should be focused not only for keeping food security but also for providing the materials for processing livestock feed products to reduce the products imported from outside -Supporting cooperating between public and private sector to establish seed production bases at optimum locations in the North, Central and the south provinces of Vietnam, government should supporting to develop irrigation system, required machines ect For F1 seed production VI Key strategies and policy options to promote hybrid rice development in Viet nam to 2020 and 2030 -Supporting training for seed growers as well as hybrid rice growers about advanced hybrid rice technologies, strengthening extension system to transfer hybrid rice technology -Setting up new seed policy to give importing hybrid rice seed of new combination only for two years after that the F1 seed have to be produced in country (Vietnam) It is required from all seed companies involved in domestic F1 seed production - It is required to Vietnam government to creating new policy to support the seed companies to accumulating the land at optimum locations by hearing 50 years similating to industry land for F1 seed production - Applying insurance practices for F1 seed production in rice for seed growers VI Key strategies DOMESTIC F1 HYBRID RICE SEED PRODUCTION -Up to date, Vietnam has released about 80 Chinese rice hybrids, 10 hybrids of other countries and 30 hybrids bred by Vietnam itself -Volume of domestic F1 hybrid rice seed production is increasing - Some foreign companies (Bayer, SL-Agritech, Mahyco…) have also just started F1 hybrid seed production in Vietnam -In 2014, the F1 seed production area is 2,420 Ha, the estimated production is 6,200 tons, to meet 40% of hybrid rice seed demand -In 2016, the F1 seed production area is expected to increase up to 4,000 ha, the production is estimated at 10.000 to 11.000 tons, to be able to meet 65 - 70% of Grain of HYT100 & HYT 83