July 14, 2014
In 2013, AGRA in partnership with the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria, released three lowland rice varieties – UPIA1, UPIA2, and UPIA3 - which are long grains of grade A, high-yielding, and resistant to some economic abiotic stresses such as iron toxicity and drought. The new varieties are also distinctive, uniform, and stable across all tested locations, and possess good agronomic traits such as resistance to lodging, early and medium maturity period, and acceptable heights, making them easy to integrate into the Nigerian farming system. They also meet the cooking quality requirements of Nigerian consumers.
We recognize that rice continues to grow in importance as a major staple across Africa; rising consumer demand confirms this. We also know that its productivity is impeded by climate change as well as lack of ecological adaptation so we commit resources to develop, register and release improved varieties to combat these challenges. In 2013, this effort paid off by the release of these three new lowland rice varieties, aligning with the Nigerian government’s policy on rice value chain development.
AGRA’s PASS program ensures that new varieties are suitable for meeting the needs of farmers. The UPIA varieties, which originated from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Africa Rice Centre (AfricaRice), have various advantages, apart from being adaptable to lowland ecologies. For instance, UPIA1 has a maturity period of 90 -105 days with a potential yield of 6.6 t/ha and pest-disease tolerance to gall midge and neck blast, which are common rice diseases. UPIA2, which has an outstanding characteristic of high yield and tolerance to iron toxicity and African rice gall midge, matures between 110 – 120 days with a potential yield of 8.0 t/ha. The third variety, UPIA3, matures in 90 – 100 days and has the capacity to yield 7.0 t/ha.
Breeding selections started in Nigeria in 2009 until the released of these UPIA rice varieties on 11-12-2013 in Nigeria. ) In the development of the varieties we followed the normal breeding procedures for selections (Pedigree method) and for yield and agronomic characters evaluations (Preliminary yield trial (PYT), Replicated yield trial (RYT), and Advanced yield trial (AYT).
The UPIA rice varieties will accelerate rice production and income generation to the resource poor farmers not only in Nigeria but to the whole world. The early maturing ability will enables rice growing women to have double cropping in season OR one crop followed by vegetable crops before the next season. The high yielding ability as compared to the existing varieties will increase income generation to both the male and female farmers, thus enhances their livelihood.
The release of these varieties has been made possible through AGRA’s grant to the University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and the hard work of Dr. Andrew A. Efisue, who managed a team of professional breeders. It took six years of intensive research work to develop, register and release the varieties. Farmer acceptance rates of these varieties are very high because of the participatory Varietal Selection (PVS) approach used involving farmers. They attributed their acceptability of the UPIAs to the early maturing, high yielding, good agronomic traits and tolerance to the prevailing abiotic stress of the location. These varieties (UPIA) are currently being tested in many African countries including Benin and Togo.
Having achieved this major milestone, we will now engage in demonstration and awareness creation activities to prepare for a major commercialization of these new varieties which are expected to transform the farming lives of millions of rice farmers, not only in Nigeria, but across West Africa and beyond.
Topics
Species
