While commonly grown rice varieties in the Philippines have high yields, good grain quality, and resistance to pests and diseases, they lack high temperature tolerance. Heat tolerant rice is one of options rice breeders are developing to cope with global warming, Leocadio Sebastian, Department of Agriculture chief of staff, told The Manila Times in an interview. According to the DoST, high temperature can induce high spikelet sterility in rice plants at the flowering stage. “This the opportune time to develop prototypes of heat tolerant rice varieties because breeding usually take some time before we get a commercially viable variety (i.e. The early prototypes of heat tolerant rice are currently being evaluated, he noted.

Source: Manila Times November 25, 2020 16:52 UTC