Double the Yield, Double the Harvest: Zanzibar Improves Rice Production Using Nuclear Techniques

With one of the fastest growing populations in Africa and a massive increase in tourism, Zanzibar needs more rice. This is how they are getting it, with the help of nuclear techniques and support from the IAEA in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). <br /><br /> Text: M. Gaspar/IAEA<br /> Photos: B. Csete/IAEA
Currently, around 70% of the rice consumed in Zanzibar needs to be imported.
The government would like to reduce that ratio by half in the coming years. With the help of nuclear techniques, the country is trying to produce more rice to meet the demand.
A few years ago, rice seeds were irradiated at labs operated by the IAEA and the FAO in Austria and were sent back to Zanzibar for testing.
Using equipment donated by the IAEA, researchers identified a promising variety and cultivated it further.
The result was SUPA BC, a rice variety which has double the yield of local varieties, released to farmers in 2014. And it can be harvested twice a year. This means that farmers are quadrupling their production and income.
Today, more than 700 farmers are growing SUPA BC, accounting for 80% of the country’s rice production on irrigated land. The government is installing irrigation systems on more than 1,500 acres of land to plant more SUPA BC.
Meanwhile, researcher Salum Hamas and his colleagues at the Zanzibar Agriculture Research Institute are looking to increase SUPA BC's resistance to diseases.
They have inoculated 100 samples of SUPA BC with the Rice Yellow Mottle Virus and irradiated them with various doses. One of the samples was found resistant to the disease! Researchers are now testing the surviving variety further to validate its resistance.
Earlier this year the IAEA sent to Zanzibar a new batch of irradiated seeds. They have been planted and inoculated with the rice blast fungal disease to then select the resistant ones.
"In a few years we hope to have a further improved variety, resistant to diseases," Hamas said.
More home grown rice means less dependence on imports, more money and more jobs for Zanzibar.

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Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero hunger Department of Nuclear Sciences and Applications Department of Technical Cooperation Technical cooperation programme Nuclear technology and applications Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Plant Breeding and Genetics Section Joint FAO/IAEA Centre of Nuclear Techniques in Food and Agriculture Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Food and agriculture Plant breeding Mutation induction Africa

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