7/27/2019 Women in motion: Women farmers can be choosers

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7/27/2019 Women in motion: Women farmers can be choosers

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Although rice typically grows in standing water, it will drown

like any other plant when hit with severe fooding. In India

and Bangladesh alone, 4 million tons o riceenough to eed

30 million peopleare destroyed by foods every year.

To help solve this annual problem, plant breeders at IRRI

added the SUB1 gene into rice to develop scuba ricehigh-

yielding varieties that can survive submergence o up to two

weeks. The SUB1 gene was discovered by researchers in a

food-tolerant but low-yielding traditional variety that is grown

across limited areas in the Indian state o Odisha. The SUB1

gene triggers a hibernation-like response when the rice plant

is submerged in water. The plant resumes growth ater the

water recedes.

The SUB1 gene was incorporated into Swarna, a very

popular variety in South Asia, to create Swarna-Sub1. The

new variety retained the desirable traits o the original Swarna

and, in the absence o fooding, yields the same. Unlike

varieties without the SUB1 gene, though, Swarna-Sub1 still

produces a reasonable yield even ater being submerged in

foodwaters or up to 14 days.

Swarna-Sub1 is being adopted at an unprecedented rate

across South Asia.

Sub1 gene or food protection

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The STRASA project is helping women by providing them with

food-tolerant varieties and including them in participatory varietalselection.

From one womans hand to a villages choice

It is thus important that women have direct access

to good-quality seed and undergo proper training on its

production, in preparation or planting in the next cropping

season. Meeting the preerences o both men and womenin rice varietal improvement will increase adoption rates and

ensure household ood security.