TRADITIONAL varieties of rice that disappeared from the fields of Cambodia
during the tyrannical rule of the Khmer Rouge are making a comeback after
samples were discovered in an international gene bank.
Gene banks in Cambodia were reduced to rubble during the fighting of the
early 1970s and by the Khmer Rouge’s destruction of the country’s scientific
infrastructure after it took over in 1975. Amid the turmoil, starving peasants
often had little choice but to consume their own reserves of seeds.
As their country descended into chaos, Cambodian scientists sent samples from
national seed banks for safe keeping in the cold storage facilities at the
International Rice Research Institute in Los Banos, the Philippines. Three
varieties found there have now been returned to Cambodia. Edwin Javier, a plant
breeder with the IRRI, reveals this move in the current newsletter of the
Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.
A new generation of Cambodian plant breeders is rediscovering the unique
properties of the lost varieties. Cambodia’s rain-fed lowland agricultural
environment is highly diverse and requires a range of rice varieties with
different growth rates and sunlight sensitivities, says Javier. The reintroduced
species are already producing higher yields than modern varieties.