Scientists searching for new rice varieties as climate change threatens crops

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - Rice is one of the most important cereals in the world and is an important part of human nutrition. Rice production in Europe, which currently accounts for two-thirds of the rice consumed on the continent, is threatened by the effects of climate change, while most varieties are severely damaged by salinization and giant snails.
 
Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the most salt-sensitive crops, and the river deltas where rice is grown in Europe are becoming saltier due to rising temperatures, rising sea levels, and water scarcity, according to a statement from the Horizon 2020 program.
 
Researchers from the EU, Argentina, and China are developing salt-resistant rice to protect this important crop not only from the effects of climate change but also from pests - the apple snail.
 
The apple snail is one of the worst crop pests of recent times. It is estimated that these snails currently cause damage to rice fields worldwide equivalent to a loss of ten billion euros every year.
 
For years, measures have been adopted to combat the apple snail and stop its spread, but in the autumn of 2013, the Government of Catalonia explored a new strategy in agreement with the EU. The Catalan government then flooded the fields with seawater. This proved to be one of the few strategies that succeeded in suppressing the presence of the snail, which cannot tolerate high salinity levels, but the residual salinity caused a loss of productivity of about 30 percent in some fields.
 
The NEURICE project is funded by Horizon 2020, Europe's largest research and innovation program, with €4,608,000, to bring together experts from various fields such as biotechnology, agriculture and agricultural development, and salinity monitoring systems to try to solve this challenge through international collaborative research.
 
Scientists are using traditional breeding methods, crossing European with Asian rice lines. In Asia, there are some tropical rice varieties that are highly tolerant to salinity but cannot be grown in the Mediterranean climate. It was recently discovered that the salinity tolerance of these tropical Asian varieties is due to a chromosomal segment called Saltol. To incorporate this trait into commercial European varieties, traditional, non-transgenic improvement techniques are used. The final plant is mostly European, but contains a small part of the genome of the salt-resistant Asian variety.
 
The project results were better than expected.
 
"We have also seen that most of the varieties obtained in the NEURICE project perform better compared to the original local varieties under saline conditions. But surprisingly, some varieties perform even better than local ones in saline fields, although we have to wait for the results of this second year to confirm this observed trend," says the project coordinator and professor of plant physiology at the Universidad de Barcelona (UB), Salvador Nogues.

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Rice (Oryza sativa) is one of the most salt-sensitive crops, and the river deltas where rice is grown in Europe are becoming saltier due to rising temperatures, rising sea levels, and water scarcity. Researchers from the EU, Argentina, and China are developing salt-resistant rice to protect this important crop not only from the effects of climate change but also from the apple snail pest. The apple snail is one of the worst crop pests of recent times. It is estimated that snails currently cause damage to rice fields worldwide equivalent to a loss of tens of billions of euros every year.

For years, measures have been adopted to combat apple snails and stop their spread, but in the autumn of 2013, the autonomous government of Catalonia explored a new strategy in agreement with the European Union: flooding fields with seawater. This proved to be one of the few strategies that succeeded in suppressing the presence of the snail, which cannot tolerate high salinity levels, but the residual salinity caused a productivity loss of about 30% in some fields.

The NEURICE project is funded by Horizon 2020, Europe's largest research and innovation program, with €4,608,000, to bring together experts from various fields such as biotechnology, agriculture and agricultural development, and salinity monitoring systems to try to solve this challenge through international collaborative research.

Scientists are using traditional breeding methods, crossing European with Asian rice lines. In Asia, there are some tropical rice varieties that are highly tolerant to salinity but cannot be grown in the Mediterranean climate. It was recently discovered that the salinity tolerance of these tropical Asian varieties is due to a chromosomal segment called Saltol. To incorporate this trait into commercial European varieties, traditional, non-transgenic improvement techniques are used. The final plant is mostly European, but contains a small part of the genome of the salt-resistant Asian variety.

The project results were better than expected. “We have also seen that most of the varieties obtained in the NEURICE project perform better compared to the original local varieties under saline conditions. But surprisingly, some varieties perform even better than local ones in saline fields, although we have to wait for the results of this second year to confirm this observed trend,” says the project coordinator and professor of plant physiology at the Universidad de Barcelona (UB), Salvador Nogues.

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* Horizon 2020 is the largest multinational program dedicated to research and innovation and is 'Open to the World'. This means that researchers, universities, research organizations or companies from all over the world can apply to participate in the activities of the Work Programme, which are mainly carried out through calls for proposals. The Work Programme for 2018-2020 represents a major investment of €30 billion, with over 600 calls for project proposals, including a list of 30 international flagship initiatives in areas of mutual benefit.