Conservation of Rice Genetic Resources for Food Security

Abstract

Article History In the Philippines, rice is a primary agricultural crop and major caloric food source of Received: August 21st, 2015 Filipinos. Rice is produced in all of this archipelagic country’s provinces, wherein total produc- Accepted: October 7th, 2015 tion (~18.4 million MT) is ranked eighth in the world. PhilRice was established as a dedicated Published: October 8th, 2015 research and development arm to propel sustained rice yield growth and stability toward self- sufficient production. Supporting its rice varietal improvement program is its Gene bank, a Citation national repository of local- and foreign-sourced rice genetic materials. Currently, there are Rabara RC, Ferrer MC, Cala- 14,388 rice accessions conserved at PhilRice Gene bank and 44% of which are landraces and yugan MIC, Duldulao MD, Jara- traditional rice varieties. To date, 89% of the accessions have been Phenotypically character- Rabara J. Conservation of rice ized. To make these genetic materials desirable parent lines for rice breeding programs, a more genetic resources for food secu- comprehensive phenotypic characterization and evaluation of responses to various stresses re- rity. Adv Food Technol Nutr Sci Open J. 2015; SE(1): S51-S56. mains to be done. A gene-bank’s capacity to explore genetic potential of its holdings using molecular technology advances could pinpoint important traits in potential parent lines that are valuable in developing better rice varieties. The bottom line among the challenges of rice gene banking is striking a balance between fund resource availability and undertaking the numerous core research activities, including collection, conservation, documentation, characterization, evaluation, distribution and dissemination of rice genetic materials.