Success in Controlling Rice Bacterial Leaf Blight: Xingda Releases 2 Disease-Resistant Rice Varieties
Rice bacterial leaf blight, be gone! Xingda releases 2 disease-resistant rice varieties. Do you know which two rice varieties they are? Let's take a look.
When farmers grow rice, what they fear most is encountering bacterial leaf blight, rice blast and sheath blight. The appearance of these diseases means reduced yields and rice quality will also be affected. Take bacterial leaf blight as an example: this disease invades plants through wounds on the rice plant. After infection with bacterial leaf blight, yields drop by 30%, and it can also cross-infect, with the worst case affecting an entire rice field so that it cannot be harvested.
Wang Qiangsheng, a professor in the Department of Agronomy at National Chung Hsing University who was once named one of the nation's top ten agricultural experts, presented 2 new bacterial leaf blight-resistant rice varieties on the 14th, "Xingda No. 9" and "Xingda No. 11". They were developed by improving Tainan No. 11, which has the largest cultivation area in Taiwan, China, and Taikeng No. 9, the most popular on the domestic market. In addition to retaining the original characteristics of excellent grain quality and ease of cultivation, they are more resistant to the common rice disease bacterial leaf blight. After more than 3 years of regional trial planting, they have performed excellently. In the past, diseased rice required 3 applications of pesticide, while growing disease-resistant rice requires only 1 application, effectively reducing pesticide costs.
Wang Qiangsheng said that in addition to the bacterial leaf blight-resistant rice released this time, rice resistant to rice blast and sheath blight will also be released later. At present, research is also actively underway on rice resistant to two diseases, with the ultimate goal of breeding rice resistant to three diseases, so that rice can be spared from the harm of bacterial leaf blight, rice blast and sheath blight. Consumers will be able to enjoy safe rice, and it will also be the preferred variety for organic and eco-friendly cultivation.