flooding, yet retain the characteristicsthat farmers want.”With the Sub1 concept well andtruly proved, seeds were sent fortesting and refinement to nationalorganizations in South Asia, includingthe Bangladesh Rice ResearchInstitute (BRRI) and, in India, theCentral Rice Research Institute(CRRI) in Orissa and NarendraDev University of Agriculture andTechnology in Faizabad, UttarPradesh. The trial results there werealso extremely promising.In short, scientists had developedrice that could handle more than aweek’s flooding with almost no lossof yield (1 week is enough to severelydent the harvest of the nontolerantversions) and would recover toproduce a reasonable yield after even2 weeks’ submergence (enough toalmost wipe out nontolerant versions).Aside from the flood tolerance, thenew varieties were virtually identicalto their counterparts: farmers wouldbe able to manage them in exactlythe same way and, in the absence offlooding, achieve the same yield.But, as any agricultural scientistwill tell you, there is a vast gulfbetween the tightly controlledenvironment of the experimentstation and the more capriciousnature of a real farm. By 2007,the time had come to test the Sub1BRRI Former Director General Dr. Md. Nur-E-Elahi(left) and BRRI scientist M.A. Mazid explain theflood-tolerant rice trials carried out at BRRI’sRangpur station.adam barclay (5)BRRI scientist M.A. Mazid (second from right) speaks to onlookers about the success of farmer MostafaKamal’s (right) flood-tolerant rice trials. Mr. Kamal’s neighbor, Mohammad Shahidul Islam (left), is keen togrow the new varieties himself.varieties in farmers’ fields. Inthis setting, there was no way ofcontrolling when flooding wouldoccur, how long it would last, orwhether it would even happen at all.Moving forward to November2008, to a small farm in RangpurDistrict in northwestern Bangladesh,researchers from IRRI, UC, andnational institutes in India andBangladesh commenced a SouthAsian tour to mark the completion ofthe project From genes to farmers’fields: enhancing and stabilizingproductivity of rice in submergenceproneenvironments, funded from2004 to 2008 by Germany’s FederalMinistry for Economic Cooperationand Development (BMZ).If ever there was a country withflooding problems, Bangladesh is it.More than 1 million hectares—20%—of the country’s rice lands are floodprone.“In those areas where floodingoccurs once or twice and recedeswithin 12–14 days,” says BRRIPrincipal Scientific Officer M.A. Mazid,who has overseen the Sub1 trials atBRRI’s Rangpur station, “the Sub1varieties could survive and improveyields by up to 3 tons per hectare.”Given that Bangladesh is forcedto import around 2 million tons ofrice each year, BRRI Director GeneralMohammad Firoze Shah Shikdersays that successful flood-tolerantrice could substantially reduce, if noteliminate, the country’s imports.“Sub1 varieties will add to thetotal production of the country,” hesays. “They will save a lot of moneythat would otherwise be used forimporting rice.”Moreover, within that single,large-scale outcome, there would bethousands and thousands of equallypositive, smaller-scale achievements.Many farm families, eking out a livingon less than a hectare, could ensurethat they had enough rice to eat yearround.Others would harvest enoughto sell their surplus on the market andincrease their income.Mostafa Kamal is one of thefarmers BRRI recruited to test theSub1 varieties in his field. He and hisbrothers have a 6-hectare farm—largeby Bangladeshi standards—that needsto produce enough rice each year tofeed 22 members of the Kamal family.The farm suffers heavy losses becauseof flooding every 4 out of 5 years.“In the past, many of my plotsbecame fallow because they wereflooded too often,” says Mr. Kamal,referring to the lowest-lying 2hectares of the farm. “If we cancultivate on these plots, it will helpus produce rice to sell on the market.Two extra hectares is a big jump.”So, how did the flood-tolerantvarieties fare? Twenty-three daysafter the 8 July transplanting ofthe 2008 wet-season crop, the farmwas hit by a 15-day flood. When thewaters receded, Mr. Kamal witnesseda wonderful thing. In his Sub1 plots,95–98% of the plants recovered. Inthe non-Sub1 plots, the figure was10–12%. Many of his neighboringfarmers, who were not involvedin the trial, lost their entire crops.So encouraged was Mr. Kamal, heplanned to give away—not sell—akilogram of flood-tolerant seeds toeach of his neighbors.“When I saw Mostafa’s fieldflooded, and then saw it recover, I wassurprised—it was like magic,” recallsMr. Kamal’s neighbor, MohammadShahidul Islam. The annual flashfloods mean that Mr. Islam grow<strong>sr</strong>ice on only the upper half of his 1.6-hectare farm in the wet season. Eachyear, he needs to buy 1 to 2 months’worth of rice to cover his family’sshortfall. He believes that floodtolerantvarieties will allow him toplant on his low-lying 0.8 hectare andcover that shortage. “These varieties,”“Forget Swarna! Go for Swarna-Sub1!” saysBasant Kumar Rao, a rice farmer from NuagaonVillage near Cuttack in Orissa. Here, he stands inhis crop of Swarna-Sub1, which recovered well aftertwo floods hit his farm in the 2007 wet season.Following a 10-day flood, Orissa farmer BidhuBhusan Raut saw his Swarna-Sub1 recover wellwhile his nontolerant Gayatri perished. “Betteryielding is better living,” he says.he says, “will mean more food, higherincome, and a better livelihood.”Observing the success of theflood-tolerant varieties in Bangladeshwas a watershed moment for SigridHeuer, an IRRI molecular biologistwho contributed to the analysis ofSUB1A.“I knew all along SUB1A wasworking in any type of rice we put itin,” she says. “I’ve seen it many timesat IRRI and I’ve seen the data fromthe field experiments in India. But I’dnever seen it in farmers’ fields withmy own eyes. Here, I’ve seen it afternatural flooding for 15 days—themaximum time we think SUB1Ashould be able to withstand—and it’sworking. It’s really fantastic.”A short flight away in easternIndia, it is the same story. The statesof West Bengal and Orissa, alongwith Uttar Pradesh in the northeast,have all seen equally promising trialresults and plan to completely replaceSwarna with Swarna-Sub1 as soonas it is officially released by stateseed certification agencies. In WestBengal, Swarna dominates, with 80%of the rice area already planted tothe variety. A move to Swarna-Sub1would therefore be relatively easy andstands to have enormous impact.“Forget Swarna! Go for Swarna-Sub1!” is the advice from BasantKumar Rao, a rice farmer fromNuagaon Village near Cuttack inOrissa. “I trust Swarna-Sub1. I’ll keepgrowing it. I got good money for it in2007,” he says.That year, his farm was hit bytwo floods, one of 11 days and oneof 7 days. The flood-tolerant ricerecovered after both floods and,although he was able to salvage alittle of his regular Swarna, it yieldednowhere near as well.“Better yielding is better living,”according to another Orissa farmer,Bidhu Bhusan Raut. In the 2008 wetseason, Mr. Raut grew Gayatri, apopular Indian variety, and Swarna-Sub1 on his entire 1-hectare farm.The development and testing of flood-tolerant rice varieties—on show here at BRRI’s Rangpur station—have attracted keen interest from plant scientists across the world.28 Rice Today April-June 2009 Rice Today April-June 2009 29