No 'padi angin' means more rice
2011/01/31
By Roy See Wei Zhi New Straits Times 31 Jan 11;
SERDANG: The red menace that has plagued the padi industry for more than 20 years, resulting in almost RM100 million in losses per planting season, will cease to be a problem with innovative technology.
A padi lookalike, the weedy rice (padi angin) has had a stranglehold on cultivated varieties by growing alongside them and competing for nutrients and space.
But no more. The Clearfield Production System (CPS) will see the cultivation of two special varieties of padi called MR220-CL1 and MR220-CL2.
These new varieties are tolerant to a potent herbicide called imidazolinone that will not allow the weedy rice to even sprout.
This effectively eradicates the padi angin which has no commercial value and has been a scourge to farmers in the peninsula for more than two decades.
Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) principal research officer Dr Azmi Man said previously, there had been no truly effective way of controlling these noxious weeds.
"The old ways of fighting these weeds are either too costly or labour- intensive.
"It also has secondary effects that are detrimental to the main crop.
"Now, with the CPS, farmers finally have a cheap and easy solution to deal with the weedy rice that does not damage the cultivated padi."
Field trials have shown that the new varieties of padi produce up to 20 per cent more yield than standard padi because the improved method eliminates weedy rice from competing for nutrients.
The new padi also has a shorter maturation period of 105 and 100 days, respectively, compared with the 110 days for unaltered MR220.
With the CPS, since the new padi can be grown and harvested faster, Azmi believed the national average for padi yields can be increased from 4.4 tonnes to 6.5 tonnes per hectare.
This means that for every RM1 a farmer invests, he would get RM2.50 in returns, said Azmi.
"This will bring our country one step closer to being self-sufficient in terms of rice production. It also relieves the stress of food-shortage problems."
A study conducted in 2004 showed that more than RM90 million was lost per season because padi cannot be harvested due to weedy rice infestation.
Azmi said he had seen whole padi fields go to waste because they could not be harvested as the weedy rice had taken over completely.
CPS is the product of a joint-venture project which started in 2003, between Mardi and BASF Sdn Bhd.
It is a padi-growing method that combines the use of genetically-cultured padi, together with a purpose-designed herbicide from BASF.
BASF crop protection division senior manager T. George Varghese said because BASF was in charge of distribution, they would be selling both the padi seeds and herbicide as an easy-to-use package.
"We will run training sessions and hold demonstrations for farmers to learn how to use the CPS."
