Climate-smart flood and salinity tolerant African rice

project summary

Tanzania produces over 80% of rice produced in East Africa, and any reduction in productivity will influence regional food security. However globally, Tanzania is among the 13 countries to be most affected by climate change with severe risks of increase in both frequency and severity of fresh or saline floods, one of the most severe climate related risks for rice. Over 70% of rice in Tanzania is rainfed, where fresh or saline floods are common, already resulting in dramatic losses to farmers; in 2015, several regions were seriously affected by floods recognizing it as the most devastating natural hazard. Salinity and sodicity are also major threats in irrigated schemes and rainfed lowlands in Tanzania. We propose to identify novel genes and large-effect quantitative trait loci (QTLs) responsible for tolerance to salinity andflooding stresses, including flooding during crop establishment where anaerobic germination (AG) is required. Ultimately, we aim at deploying promising genes and QTLs into short-maturing African varieties to produce climate-smart cultivars tolerant of both fresh and saline floods and saline soils, that are suitable for direct seeding to reduce production cost and sustain East-African rice productivity in a climate change scenario. The project engages with public and private partners in the rice value chain to disseminate project findings and stimulate ownership of the ultimate end products - new climate-smart rice cultivars in an African context.