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variety with high cold tolerance, andyou cut the amount of water neededthroughout the growing season.The breeder tasked with cracking thecold-tolerance puzzle is Dr. Snell.“We’ve got quite high cold toleranceto start with because a lot of our stockstarted from Californian material, whichis generally tolerant,” he says. “But,with up to 30 °C between maximumand minimum temperatures in summer,we want extreme cold tolerance. We’retalking about being able to cope withtemperatures as low as 10 °C at criticalstages of the plant’s growth.”Without that sort of cold tolerance,the aerobic rice varieties Dr. Reinkedescribes will remain nothing more thana nice idea. But, according to Dr. Snell,that may be about to change, with apromising cold-tolerant variety due to bereleased later in 2010.Familial bondLeeton rice farmer Rob Houghton (seeA sunburned grain on pages 12-17)suggests that the close relationshipbetween growers and researchers is“the reason that the industry is asstrong as it is now in such hard times.Geographically, we’re in a relativelysmall area, so it’s almost a familyA PLAQUE commemorates the site of the first Japaneserice planted in New South Wales in 1915.environment. One of the benefits is thatany outcomes of R&D are very quicklyimplemented on the farm. The lines ofcommunication are very crisp, so whenthere’s a new development it’s put outthere straight away. There’s good accessto our R&D people, everyone knowswho’s doing what and there’s plentyof opportunity for growers to availthemselves of the latest technologies andtheories.”Added to this, the farmershave an excellent relationship withSunRice. In fact, “relationship” isan understatement—the farmers areshareholders in the business, which,as well as handling all processing andmarketing operations, guarantees to buyrice at a fair price each season. SunRicealso ensures product quality by sellingpure seed to every farmer each season,rather than having farmers retain theirown seed.The third relationship in the triangleis between SunRice and the Yancoresearchers. Dr. Reinke says, “One of themost productive links we have with theindustry is through the people involvedin marketing the rice. We get togetherwith them regularly, and we get feedbackabout what’s happening in world markets,what the limitations are in the varietieswe currently have, and what marketsmight want in the future.”Collaborating with IRRIDr. Reinke explains that when he firstarrived at Yanco, the industry workedwith only two principal quality typesof rice: long- and medium-grainjaponica. Since then, that numberhas grown to seven. The first stageof the diversification process was thedevelopment of a fragrant, soft-cookinglong-grain, similar to Thai jasmine rice.This was followed by Arborio-stylevarieties for use in such dishes as risottoand paella, then soft-cooking short-grainrice aimed at the East Asian market.Next was a firm-cooking South Asianstylelong-grain and, more recently, alarger dimensioned medium-grain for theMiddle Eastern market.One unexpected effect of thedrought is that several of the Yancoresearchers have become involved ininternational projects—several of whichinvolve IRRI—aimed at improving riceLAURIE LEWIN, former head of breeding at Yanco.production in developing countries inAsia. As traditional funding has droppedoff, opportunities have emerged throughthe Australian Centre for InternationalAgricultural Research, which operatesas part of Australia’s official overseas aidprogram.“We maximize our relationshipwith IRRI at every opportunity,” saysDr. Reinke. “Historically, though, ithasn’t been easy because IRRI works ontropical rice. I can talk to the breedersthere about techniques, but sharinggermplasm (plant genetic material) isn’tso valuable. But Melissa Fitzgerald’sappointment really heralded a new era inlinkages with IRRI because, with grainquality, it doesn’t matter if it’s tropical ortemperate. Grain quality and the genesfor quality are similar across tropical andtemperate varieties of rice.”Securing commercial needsOne of the key roles for Mike Hedditch,general manager, Grower Services forSunRice, is ensuring that the R&Dprogram addresses the commercial needsof the business. Failure to do this, hesays, ultimately means a failure to meetthe needs of the farmers themselves.“We supply an enormous amountof our intellectual property to the R&Dprogram,” he says. “We’re very keento make sure that the rice breeding andthe grain quality programs in particularget the right market signals about thetypes of varieties they need to developand about the quality of the grain thatconsumers want.”Rice Today April-June 201021