World’s first perennial rice strain may do more than save labor

The world’s farmers are now free to purchase and grow a new type of rice—a perennial. The strain, called PR23, is the culmination of over fifteen years of work. Unlike annual strains, perennial plants do not have to be replanted every year. But findings published this week in Nature Sustainability suggest the story may be even better than that.

Human beings have been experimenting with rice for over nine thousand years, breeding it for better yield and better resistance to adverse conditions.  Here, an international team from the University of Illinois’ Department of Crop Sciences, the Yunnan Academy of Agricultural Sciences, and the International Rice Research Institute crossed annual paddy rice from China with a wild African perennial strain to create a plant that can be harvested for up to eight seasons without any significant reduction in yield. PR23 compares favorably to its annual counterparts, producing about: about 6.8 megagrams per hectare.

“The reduction in labor, often done by women and children, can be accomplished without substitution by fossil fuel–based equipment, an important consideration as society aims to improve livelihoods while reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with agricultural production,” says study co-author Dr. Erik Sacks.

This not only saves time and costs in parts of the world in which all three are dear but also reduces soil disruption, and fertilizer and pesticide requirements may also be considerably smaller.

Many participants in the rice planting process are children, which raises questions of reduced school absences.

The strain is already busily converting solar energy and carbon dioxide into edible carbohydrates at over 55,752 small farms in Uganda and China. PR23 first became available for purchase in 2018.

Read the full text in Nature Sustainability.