By AFP | 2025-04-30

ÑIQUÉN, Chile -- A cold, dry part of Chile might not sound like the best place to grow rice, a famously thirsty grain that thrives in tropical conditions.

But a new strain of the world's favorite cereal developed by scientists in the drought-plagued South American country has generated hope that rice can grow in seemingly inhospitable conditions.

Using an innovative planting technique, Javier Munoz has been experimentally growing the "Jaspe" strain created by the Agricultural Research Institute's (INIA) Rice Breeding Program.

It is one of several research efforts worldwide to come up with less resource-hungry crops at a time of increased water scarcity in parts of the world.

Using Jaspe in combination with a growing method that requires only intermittent watering halves the Munoz family's water consumption in a country that has for generations cultivated rice in flooded fields, or paddies.

At the same time, yield skyrocketed, with each seed yielding about 30 plants -- almost 10 times more than a conventional rice field.

Irrigating rather than flooding rice fields "is a historic step... towards the future," Munoz, 25, told AFP at his farm in the region of Ñuble, an almost five-hour drive south from the capital Santiago.

Next year, he said, he hopes to increase his production area from one hectare to five.

Chile's Maule and Ñuble regions contain the southernmost rice fields in the world.

Typically grown in wetter, tropical areas, rice has been hampered by an unprecedented megadrought in Chile, now in its 15th year, according to scientists.

Each Chilean eats on average 10kg of rice per year -- almost half of which is grown domestically and 80% of that in flooded fields, according to the SRI-Rice research center at Cornell University.

The flooding method, which requires about 2,500 liters of water per kg of rice, is used around the world to combat weeds and regulate the temperature around vulnerable seedlings.

Less methane

INIA agricultural engineer Karla Cordero and colleagues obtained the Jaspe rice strain by crossing a Chilean seed with a Russian one better adapted to cold and dry climates.

The modified seed is then grown using the SRI growing technique developed in Madagascar in the 1980s. It involves spacing the seedlings further apart in enriched soil and watering only sporadically to build a more resilient root system.

Cordero presented the results of almost 20 years of experimentation -- conducted with backing from the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture -- at an International Rice Research Conference in Manila in 2023.

The findings have yet to be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal, but Chile's Agriculture and Livestock Service, an arm of the Agriculture Ministry, gave the green light in 2023 for the new strain of long-grain white rice to be rolled out commercially.

Apart from using less water and fewer seeds, the new Jaspe-SRI method emits less methane.

'Promising approach'

Jaspe has proven to be more resistant to storms, floods and heat waves.

"The plants are much more robust, which allows rice to be produced without flooding," Cordero said.

Makiko Taguchi, a rice cultivation specialist at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, told AFP the Chilean work amounted to "a promising approach to improving rice production while reducing the environmental impact."

The results suggest the approach could work in other parts of the world "where large quantities of rice are produced and where there are droughts," said Cordero.

The team hopes to test Jaspe soon in Brazil -- the largest rice producer in the region -- and in other South American countries.

"This is the future," said Munoz. "If we want... food security and care about the environment, this is the way."