women in motion: women farmers can be choosers
TRANSCRIPT
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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
2/2Women in motion 11
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.