The Benefits Of Rice Hybridization

Outside China, there is increasing hybrid rice cultivation in Vietnam, India, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Philippines during recent years (SEARICE, 2007)

In the current status quo of the Philippines, rice hybridization is already introduced to farmers since 1998 by Chinese Professor Li Zhengyou of Yunnan Agricultural University in China. Indeed, rice hybridization has boosted the rice production in the country and the income of farm in terms of net-profit cost ratio has increased about 50%. Hence, the concept is not new. However, as years gone by, the advancement of technology has reached the field of agriculture and the practices as well as techniques are being innovated or existing concepts are being revised and new strategies are being formulated.

As of 2012, the province crop production is composed of 70,758.60 hectares devoted to rice production. Traditional transgenic rice hybrid is the most common technique used in the province. It contains genes from Bacillus thuringiensis to make it resistant to insects. Mixing genetic materials between species that could not hybridize naturally has previously generated concern among the public and regulatory agencies (Holme et al, 2013). Two newer (and potentially safer) hybridization techniques are cisgenesis and intragenesis. Unlike transgenesis, cisgenesis involves transferring genes between members of the same species, or closely related species that could crossbreed naturally. Cisgenesis is a crop plant that has been genetically modified with one or more genes isolated from a crossable donor plant (Schouten et al.,2006). Intragenesis is the transfer of a combination of different genes between the same species or species that could breed naturally. The researcher will test the adaptability of the new techniques in terms of the following factors: number of yield, pest resistance, and environmental adaptability. This research intends to introduce new techniques of hybridization such as cisgenesis and intragenesis to farmers in order to increase the production that can also have the macro and micro effect to the

Another thing is to introduce if there is effectiveness with regards to the proposed rice hybridization technique for the data gathered to be used as a guideline in developing innovating hybrid techniques that is applicable in the Philippine setting.

It is also possible to use synthetic biology for control of disease vectors. Gene drive systems can also be used to lessen the threat from other insect vectors of diseases, reverse pesticide resistance or eradicate invasive species, which are significant threats to biodiversity.

Small Scale Farmers

This study intends to help small scale farmers even though hybrid rice is quite expensive compared to the traditional rice, the maintenance cost might be lessen if ever that this study will deemed effective. Farmers use crop-protection technologies because they provide cost-effective solutions to pest problems which, if left uncontrolled, would severely lower yields. In some cases, an effective transgenic crop-protection technology can control pests better and more cheaply than existing