IRRI discovery could lead to “chalk-free” rice
HERE’S a piece of good news to the province’s rice farmers.
The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) recently discovered an important genetic information on what makes rice “chalky”, a characteristic that can devalue the grain by up to 25%.
The discovery could lead to higher quality “chalk-free” rice, which would lead to higher milling recovery that translates to better returns for farmers.
Chalk, the white, opaque portion in rice, increases the chances of the rice grain breaking when milled. This reduces the amount of rice recovered, and downgrades the quality assessment rating of rice.
“Two things cause chalkiness in a rice grain: genetics and environment,” said Dr. Melissa Fitzgerald, leader of IRRI’s grain quality and nutrition research.
She explained that their recent breakthrough can lead to further studies on how to help farmers keep their grains translucent and more appealing to consumers.
“Currently, there are only a few commercially available rice varieties that have genuinely low chalkiness… Our discovery can help us improve on this,” said Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald’s team worked with various varieties of rice with different chalkiness properties.
“We are now working with the extremely low-chalk rice to generate different breeding lines to develop new chalk-free rice varieties,” said Dr. Xiangqian Zhao, a member of the research team that is supported by the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research.
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