A modern hybrid rice research centre was inducted in Nam Dinh Province, which is expected to help mitigate Vietnam’s dependence on imports.
The launching ceremony was held on the morning of August 14 in Tan Thinh Commune of northern Nam Dinh Province.
Modern hybrid rice research centre in Nam Dinh Province
The centre covers of four hectares, and was built at a cost of over VND30 billion (USD1.41 million) by Syngenta Group. This is the first modern rice research centre built and operated by an international group in Vietnam.
It is equipped with the most modern facilities to serve scientific research on rice hybridisation.
Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, deputy director of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) Department of Science, Technology and Environment, said that currently Vietnam has around 7.8 million hectares of land devoted to rice cultivation, including around 700,000 hectares for hybrids.
“Despite being a major rice exporter, Vietnam has only been able to produce between 30% and 40% of available rice hybrid. This is not enough to satisfy domestic demand, and creates a need for imports,” Thuy noted.
Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, deputy director MARD’s Department of Science, Technology and Environment
She added that hybrid rice varieties are expected to play an important role in world agriculture in the near future because of their higher productivity, better quality and resistance to climate change. As a result, according to her, it will be necessary to improve the capacity to produce hybrid rice in order to create stable domestic supply as well as improve rice output and quality.
“The establishment of the centre will help Vietnamese researchers and scientists cooperate and gain access to gene sources from around the world, as well as apply modern technologies in agriculture. We expect that Vietnam will become an exporter of hybrid rice varieties in the future,” she added.
Gloverson Moro, head of R&D Asia-Pacific at Syngenta
Gloverson Moro, head of R&D Asia-Pacific at Syngenta said, “We decided to build the centre in Nam Dinh because the province holds certain advantages for rice production, and is a heart of rice production in northern Vietnam. We chose Vietnam because it is a second biggest rice exporter in the world and the importance of rice here goes without saying. We want to generate high-quality hybrid rice varieties for Vietnam and the world.”
Phase one of the project involves importing rice varieties from centres operated by Syngenta from around the world. To date, two hybrid rice varieties are under development, and the centre is expected to produce two to three high-quality hybrids by 2017.
The second phase is expected to be realised in 2017.