Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
and high milling recovery (60%) is the most preferred (Martínez and
Cuevas-Pérez1989). Rice is consumedasmilled-white rice bymost people
in LAC. In some regions in north-eastern Brazil, however, red rice (locally
called arroz-vermelho) is preferred because of its special taste and
avor
(Pereira 2004). There is therefore a need to develop germplasm and
technology appropriate for diverse grain quality and rice production
systems. Several breeding strategies have been used by rice breeders to
developmaterials needed to overcome the problems that limit production
in this region, including new challenges posed by climate change. Here,
we review the history, development, and impact of the Centro Inter-
nacional de Agricultura Tropical (CIAT) Rice Program over time, specifi-
-
cally in LAC, and in close collaborationwith partners in the region as well
as other CGIAR centers.
A. History of the CIAT Rice Program
Latin America and the Caribbean is a secondary center of diversity of
rice, with wild populations of
Oryza glumaepatula
,
Oryza latifolia
,
Oryza grandiglumis
,and
Oryza alta
found in Brazil, Costa Rica,
Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela,
Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia among others countries (Vaughan 1994;
Hamilton and Raymond 2005). In contrast, cultivated rice was intro-
duced to this region in the late 16th century by Spanish and Portuguese
colonists (Jennings 1961; Sousa 1974; Dawe et al. 2010). Rice breeding
efforts made in LAC began in 1927 in Peru (Castillo and Hernández
1961) and in 1928 in Brazil with the introduction of improved cultivars
by farmers in Rio Grande do Sul, followed by the establishment of the
Instituto Agronomico de Campinas (IAC) in 1937, and the Instituto
Riograndense do Arroz (IRGA) rice breeding program in 1938
(Guimarães 2002). Rice breeding in Argentina started around 1930 in
Saltawith the creationof theGüemez Experimental Station,where the
rst
local cultivarswere selected. Rice breeding received an important boost at
the end of the 1950s with the creation of the Instituto Nacional de
Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA), which established Rice Experimental
Stations in Corrientes and Concepción del Uruguay (unpubl.). In Mexico,
rice improvement started in 1949, while in Colombia, the Rice Program of
the Ministry of Agriculture took charge of breeding activities in 1957
(Chatel and Guimarães 2002). The Rice Program of CIAT was established
in Cali, Colombia, in 1967. This was the starting point of a pioneering
breeding program under the umbrella of CIAT, the Instituto Colombiano
de Agricultura (ICA), and the Federación Nacional de Arroceros
(FEDEARROZ). This collaborative program developed semidwarf
