‘Perennial’ rice saves time and money, but comes with risks

Grains that grow year after year without having to be replanted could save money, help the environment, and reduce the need for back-breaking labor. Now, the largest real-world test of such a crop—a perennial rice grown in China—is showing promise. Perennial rice can yield harvests as plentiful as the conventional, annually planted crop while benefiting the soil and saving smallholder farmers considerable labor and expense, researchers have found. “This is the first robust case study” of perennial rice, says Sieglinde Snapp, a soil and crop scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center who was not involved with the work. The results show the crop is “a potential game changer,” adds Clemens Grünbühel, an ecological anthropologist at the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research who studies agriculture and rural development. The advance could reduce labor or allow China to grow more food, he and others say. But whether the perennial rice will catch on is hard to predict, says Susan McCouch, a rice geneticist at Cornell University, because seasonal replanting still has some advantages over the new crop. All rice is perennial to some extent. Unlike wheat or corn, rice roots sprout new stems after harvest. The trouble is that this second growth doesn’t yield much grain, which is why farmers plow up the paddies and plant new seedlings. The improved perennial rice, in contrast, grows back vigorously for a se...
Source: ScienceNOW - Category: Science Source Type: news