Chile is experimenting with a variety that prevents rice fields from flooding.

In the southern plains of Chile, increasingly affected by drought, an experiment opens new perspectives for rice cultivation, thanks to a variety capable of ensuring good yields with less water in extreme climates. While Chile has been suffering from an unprecedented drought for 15 years, linked to climate change according to experts, Karla Cordero, an agricultural engineer at the National Institute of Agricultural Research (INIA), has developed a new variety of rice, Jaspe, the result of crossing Chilean and Russian seeds, which is more resistant to extreme conditions. Thanks to this new, non-transgenic variety, it has been possible to implement the Intensive Rice Cultivation System (SRI), a technique developed in the 1980s to reduce flooding in rice fields. Often considered too demanding to be applied, it proved effective when combined with this variety, which is better adapted to water stress. “We realized it was possible to produce rice ...