Agricultural scientists in Uganda have over the years been breeding rice both upland and low land irrigated rice with a number of verities released for farmer uptake.

Experts note that since the introduction of rice into Uganda in 1904, improvements of both upland and irrigated rain fed lowland rice varieties have been undertaken to address a number of production and quality constraints.

These include increase in yield, pests and diseases, drought challenges as well as improvement to quality and tasty rice varieties

However this time scientists at the National Crops Resources Research Institute (NaCRRI) in cereal section have embarked on breeding black (purple) rice varieties to address the challenge of food nutrient because it contains Iron and Zinc components.

Background

According to a publication in the National Library of Medicine about Genetic dissection of black grain rice by the development of a near isogenic line by a group of scientists led by Hiroaki Maeda, it is started that

Rice with its scientific name as oryza sativa L. is one of the most important cereal crops in the world.

The scientists state that most rice cultivars produce grains which is white seeded, but some have coloured pericarps, which can be red, brown, or black also known as purple.

The pericarps of coloured rice grains accumulate proanthocyanidin which are condensed tannin compounds in red rice or anthocyanin which are water-soluble glycosides contained in black rice.

These proanthocyanidins and anthocyanins have antioxidant activity and their health benefits have been demonstrated not only in rice but also in soy bean, potato, and sweet potato

It is stated in the publication that since rice is a staple food for many consumers around the world, scientists breeding it expect that the introduction of coloured rice could have a greater global health impact than the introduction of other foods containing proanthocyanidins and anthocyanins.

In Japan black rice varieties have been bred with improvements in traits related to cultivation such as resistant in diseases and early maturing and several cultivars have been released to farmers.  

As such Ugandan scientists have adopted the same model and they are already breeding the same at the field trials in NaCRRI and below are the details.

The purpose scientists adopted breeding of black rice

Dr Samson Ojok a rice breeder at NaCRRI explaining the purpose of breeding black rice notes that since it contains anti-oxidants it helps in fighting diseases such as high blood pressure and cancer once consumed

The scientists are also targeting children who are malnourished due to a number of factors. Once their food is processed with addition of black rice, it will help them regain normal growth.

Breeding process

Dr Ojok and his team of scientists started the breeding process three years ago through a collaborative research initiative under a programme Africa Rice with Ivory Coast.

Since Uganda is a member of Africa Rice breeding programme, they acquired the breeding seed from West Africa and planted them at NaCRRI.

Preliminary trials are ongoing and in two years’ time the scientists would have concluded the trails ready for the release process.

The team is conduct tests for resistance against rice yellow mottle virus and right blast which wrinkles and damages the seed.

They are being tested under lowland rain fed condition and to assess the yield

So far it has shown tolerance against the two viruses and the yield is better than the existing local varieties.

The yield rate is 1.5 tons per acre compared to supper variety which yields o.8 tons per acre.

It is high in Zinc and Iron and the team intends to take them for on station trials in Doho Irrigation Scheme in Eastern Uganda, Olweny Swamp irrigation Scheme in Northern Uganda and Mubuku Irrigation Scheme in Western Uganda to assess their stability in growth.

Scientists in South Eastern Asia have bred black rice over the years and farmers are growing them for consumer uptake.

Agro industrial products to be made out of black rice

According Ojok, black rice can be used to process a number of industrial products. These include red wine processing, soft drinks, confectionaries such as cakes, bread, waffles and for processing composite flour mixed with millet flour, maize flour and soy beans as baby food.

Previously released Rice varieties

Scientists at NaCRRI released New Rice for Africa (Nerica) rice varieties and they have been striving upland in farmer fields over time.

Nerica include a group of 18 varieties developed by the African Rice Centre, which is part of the CGIAR Consortium, along with national research organizations in West Africa.

These varieties were introduced in 2002 and by 2009, they had expanded the area planted with upland rice from 1,500 to over 50,000 hectares.

Dr Ojok, noted that there are more than 15 varieties which farmers are growing in upland and irrigated low lands.

These include the Nerica series Nerica 1 – 10 and Namche 1-6 all grown upland.

 The irrigated lowland varieties are Wita9, Komboka, Agoro and Okile varieties. The yield rate of these varieties under good management are 2-3 tonnes per hectare.

 Newly released varieties

 There are recently newly released varieties which include Naro Rice 1 containing straw coloured grains and matures in 95 days. The yield rate is 5,708 kilograms per hectare.

 Naro Rice 2 matures in 120 days and has slender grains similar to Basmat rice variety imported from Pakistan with yield rate of 5,980 kilograms per hectare.

 Naro Rice 3 mature in 115 days and it has heavy grains bigger than the preferred Super rice and it yields 4,760 kilograms per hectare.

 Naro Rice 4 matures in 130 days and yields 6,520 kilograms per hectare with heavy and bigger grains.

 All these varieties are bred for purposes of substituting imported rice into the country and they are tolerant to Rice Mortal virus disease, Rice blight and bacterial leaf streak.

The black rice Variety in three years to come will be added onto the list for nutritional purposes.