Appendix 1 - IRRI

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ice become the largest crop, followed by sweet potato. Now rice was grown in 3 subdistricts (Merauke, Muting, and Kurik) out of 23 subdistricts, which accounts for 2% of the area where the climate was suitable for rice production (1 million has.). Therefore, there will be a great potential for rice production in this district, when irrigation system is in place. Merauke district is already self-sufficient for rice supply, rice has been sent to other districts in Irian Jaya. The team took Merauke town as a base and used a base camp approach traveled to different areas around Merauke. Due to the difficult condition of transportation and the limited extension of roads from Merauke town in this district, the collecting team was only able to explore in the Merauke subdistrict (Figure l), and no other subdistricts were visited this time. We expected that wild rice should occur abundantly in the swampy areas of the entire Merauke district. Four wild rice species were collected in Merauke (<strong>Appendix</strong> 1). Jaya Wijaya - Jaya Wijaya district is a mountainous region in the central part of Irian Jaya, with latitudes between 3” 20’ and 5” 12’ south and longitudes between 137” 19’ and 141” 21’ east. The average altitude ranges from 1,600 -3,500 meters above sea level, but in some areas, such as Elelim, Iwur, Betom and Somadai, the elevation is lower than 1,000 meters. The average rainfall is 1,438 mm per year and the temperature varies between 15.5 - 26.6 “C. The district is composed of 28 subdistricts with a total population around 400,000, of which 90% are Irianese tribal people, only 10% are from other part of the country. The traditional staple foods in Jaya Wijaya are mainly sweet potato, taro, and maize. Cultivated rice varieties that tolerate cold climate were introduced in recent years to the swampy and flood plain areas. Most of the rice varieties came from Sulawesi and the average yield was estimated to be 2 to 2.5 ton/h. The most serious pests there were rice blast and bird attack. We saw nearly 100% yield loss in some rice field because of the blast attack. Local farmers did not know blast and they thought this problem was caused by bird attack. The local people and the agriculture extension workers did not know muc:h about rice, they didn’t have knowledge at all on wild rice species. The team took Wamena as the base and spent two days to explore rice germplasm at different sites recommended by an agriculture extension worker who participated in the training workshop and a local field specialist from the Pest and Disease Protection Office from this area (Figure 1). We intended to find the upland wild rice species, 0. meyeriana or 0. granulata which usually occur in the forests of mountain areas. No wild rice species was found in Wamena, but eight local rice varieties probably introduced from Sulawesi were collected from two sites near Wamena (Figure 22, <strong>Appendix</strong>l). Wild Ogmz species collected in Irian Jaya During our field exploration, four wild Oryza species were found and collected from Merauke subdistrict. These were Oryza ofjcinalis, 0. meridionalis, 0. rufipogon, and 0. Zongiglumis. But no wild rice species were found by the collecting team in the areas we 7
visited in Jayapura and Jaya Wijaya. Neither the local farmers nor agriculture extension workers in the areas were aware of any wild rice species. Only traditional rice varieties that probably were introduced from Sulawesi were collected at the altitudes between 1600 and 1650 meters in Wamena subdistrict. The four wild Oryza species were found to be very common in swampy areas, along canals, or inside the forests, occurring at altitudes between 5 to 40 meters above the sea level. A total number of 29 samples (including seeds and vegetative stocks) of wild rice species were collected. These wild rice species were reported by farmers and local agriculture extension workers to be abundant in the Merauke subdistrict, particularly in the swampy areas. It has been several months without any rains this year in many places, the areas we visited were extremely dry compared to the other years, which might affect the occurrence of the wild rice species. Most of the populations of 0. rufipogon and 0. Zongiglumis we encountered were photoperiod sensitive. Therefore, most of the 0. rufipogon and 0. Zongiglumis samples collected were only as vegetative stocks. These samples are now planted in the glass house of Laboratory of Genetic Resources in Research Institute for Food Crops and Biotechnology, CRIFC. We were told that the high pick of flowering time for the four wild rice species was usually from February to April, when there was much flooded water during the wet season. The best time for collecting seed samples of these wild rice species will be from the end of March to July. Nevertheless, we were told that the accessibility to the areas was very poor during that period because of the flooding. Although we were not able to visit other subdistricts in Merauke, we expected that more wild rice populations could be found in the swampy areas of the entire Merauke district, particularly the coastal regions. Oryza offlcinalis Wall. ex Watt 0. officinalis is a diploid (2n=2x=24) perennial wild rice species containing the CC genome (Vaughan 1989). This species usually occurs in a wide range of habitats, such as swampy low lands, open or partially shaded depressions, along ditches and canals, at lakeside, and near or inside farmers rice field. Its distribution started from the foothill of Himalayan Mountains and southern China, through Myanmar, Thailand and Philippines extending to Malay Archipelago. One population of 0. ofjcinalis has also been found in the northern part of Australia. This species is characterized by having open panicles and small anthers but with a tremendous variation in morphology. In Irian Jaya, 0. officinalis was found in both non-disturbed and human disturbed environments, in open flooded lowlands, swamps, dried ponds, in banana woods, along canals, streams, and road sides, and inside the deserted fields (Figures 3 to 8). Many 0. ofJicinaZis populations were found in very dry habitats when we collected the samples and the plants were relatively short (about 70 cm). All of the 0. ofJicinaZis populations we encountered seemed not to be photoperiod sensitive, so these populations produced many good seeds at the time when we collected them. The local farmers and extension staff told us that this wild rice occurred much more frequently during the wet season from December to May and the plants would be much taller (up to 2 m). The high pick of flowering time for this species was in April and May, therefore the best period for collecting 0. officinalis in Irian Jaya would be estimated in June and July. The population 8
Page 1 and 2: A Report On CRIFC-IRRI Cooperative
Page 3 and 4: Farmers also noticed the variation
Page 5 and 6: Acknowledgement I would like to ack
Page 7: successful and all the participants
Page 11 and 12: possibly brought to the New Guinea
Page 13 and 14: References Aggarwal, R. K., D. S. B
Page 15 and 16: Figure 2. The collecting team is ex
Page 17 and 18: Figure 6. Mr. Natalis Tany is colle
Page 19 and 20: Figure 10. A close up picture showi
Page 21 and 22: Figure 14. Otyza Zongiglumis is exc
Page 23: Figure 18. Vegetative samples of Or
Page 26: Appendix 1 Passport data of wild an

Appendix 1 - IRRI

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