Posts Tagged: Rice
Water allocations leave rice farmers cold
Rice farmers in Northern California are trying to determine exactly how much their yields have suffered because of cold irrigation water, according to an article this week in the Chico Enterprise-Record.
The story, written by Heather Hacking, said UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Cass Mutters has done research to document the temperatures of water in the fields. Rice doesn't produce as well when irrigated with water at lower temperatures, and the longer the water is cold, the more damage is done.
Back in 1968, when Oroville Dam was built, the state water project created the Thermalito Afterbay to warm water destined for irrigation. From the beginning, farmers suspected cold water would still impact yields, but rather than negotiate the specifics then, language was left in the contracts to figure out later. About 10 years ago, because of water project complexities, water was being delivered to farmers at temperatures that made yield decline evident. Last year, the Department of Water Resources agreed to compensate growers for their yield losses.
That has set up the current scenario, in which experts are comparing the yields on farms close to the reservoir with those farther away to determine what yield losses can be attributed to cold irrigation water.
Rice research field.
Flood-tolerant rice hits the airwaves
UC Davis plant pathologist Pamela Ronald's flood-tolerant rice is getting publicity in the state's capital, with a detailed and lengthy radio interview on the Capital Public Radio program Insight and in a TV spot on the Sacramento CBS TV affiliate.
Ronald explained to Insight host Jeffrey Callison that flood-tolerant rice was developed over a period of 13 years by isolating a gene from a rice plant that has poor quality grain, but is naturally able to survive two weeks submerged in water.
Using a process called precision breeding, the gene was introduced into rice with palatable grain, and then tested on a farm in the Philippines with great success. Precision breeding, Ronald told Callison, is less controversial than "genetic engineering," which is differentiated by GE's use of a gene in a plant that had been taken from a different organism.
Ronald said the benefits of precision breeding far outweigh the potential risks.
"The risks are so low, so minute, and there are so many people that need to eat rice," Ronald said. "The introduction of a single genetic region can enhance the lives of 30 million people."
During the same public radio program, two UC Cooperative Extension farm advisors discussed their presentations at a UC Davis conference on the local food economy.
Chuck Ingels, the environmental horticulture advisor in Sacramento County, addressed the needs of Southeast Asian refugee farmers; and Morgan Doran, a livestock and range advisor for several Northern California counties, spoke about the obstacles faced by small-scale livestock operations that wish to have their specialty products - such as grass-fed beef or locally produced meat - processed.
UC research snippets in the news
Here are three recent news tidbits on UC ANR research and extension in California.
Bees do the math
Newscientist.com reported that UC Riverside scientists believe honey bees make complex math calculations about flight paths to point hivemates towards nectar-rich flowers. "I find it remarkable that, with a relatively simple brain, they can do something so mathematically complex," David Tanner was quoted. Tanner and Kirk Visscher discovered that rather than picking a flight path based on the angle of any one waggle, the bees flew off in a direction that more closely matched the mean angle of several waggles.
Protein in rice may control leaf blight in Asian rice
Capitol Press reported that UC Davis geneticist Pamela Ronald identified a protein in rice that could help control the spread of leaf blight across Asia. Rice plants have different kinds of stresses, Ronald told the reporter. "There are environmental stresses like flooding, drought, salt, and there are other types of stresses like bacterial infections. XA21 applies to those stresses," she was quoted. When the XA21 protein and another protein are altered, they could enhance resistance to bacterial leaf blight.
"Underground" farmers get sound advice
The World Watch Institute Web site turned to UC Davis poultry specialist Francine Bradley for insight on city dwellers raising chickens. The story says an underground "urban chicken" movement has swept across the United States in recent years. While not commenting on the legality of backyard chicken and egg production, Bradley does provide helpful advice for keeping the food safe. "Make sure the roof of the pen has a solid cover to protect birds from fecal matter that may drop from birds flying overhead," the story said, pulling a quote from (and attributing) a 2005 UC ANR news release. "We always tell people, don't let anyone near your birds who doesn't need to be there [due to fears of people carrying the virus]."