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New disease-resistant, high-yield rice variety launched by Bayer CropScience

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On May 14, 2008, Bayer CropScience announced the launch in India of ArizeRDhani, the world's first hybrid rice variety resistant to bacterial leaf blight. Compared with conventional varieties, this new variety can increase yields by 20%-30% and provides the crop with strong protection against the highly destructive bacterial leaf blight. "Rice is a staple food in many developing countries and emerging markets. Although global demand for this crop continues to grow, the occurrence of diseases can greatly affect harvests and threaten food supply.

On May 14, 2008, Bayer CropScience announced the launch in India of ArizeRDhani, the world's first hybrid rice variety resistant to bacterial leaf blight. Compared with conventional varieties, this new variety can increase yields by 20%-30% and provides the crop with strong protection against the highly destructive bacterial leaf blight.

"Rice is a staple food in many developing countries and emerging markets. Although global demand for this crop continues to grow, the occurrence of diseases can greatly affect harvests and threaten food supply," said Professor FriedrichBerschauer, Global President of Bayer CropScience. "We continue to increase investment in research and development of innovative agricultural technologies, such as hybrid rice seeds designed to ensure bountiful harvests and increase yields. ArizeRDhani is a key milestone in our development of new high-yield, disease-resistant rice varieties."

Bacterial leaf blight of rice is a common disease caused by Xanthomonas oryzae that affects rice production worldwide, causing rice yield losses in India of up to 60%. Under such circumstances, the hybrid rice variety

ArizeRDhani plays an important role in improving rice productivity and can therefore ensure a sustainable supply of this key food crop.

"Hybrid rice is an important crop for Bayer CropScience," said FredericArboucalot, Global Rice Manager and Head of Bioscience Asia-Pacific. Bayer CropScience sells a total of 7 rice varieties in India. India is a developing country, and with 128 million tons of rice production, it is the second-largest rice producer after China. "Even so, India's productivity is much lower than China's, ranking only 16th in the world," Arboucalot emphasized. "New crop protection products and seeds that can bring yield increases are the focus of future development, in order to improve productivity and produce enough food."

Bayer CropScience is the world's leading company in the development of hybrid rice. The high-quality seed variety ArizeR has very few impurities and germinates very easily, while also increasing yields more than conventional rice varieties.

ArizeR was launched in 2007 in 6 major Asian countries (India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Pakistan) and Brazil.

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