New rice varieties improve livelihoods of millions of households in India and Nepal
Impact Summary for the General Public
Research led by Prof. John Witcombe at BEAA used novel participatory varietal selection (PVS) to improve adoption of popular rice variety BG1442 in Nepal and developed 10 new rice varieties using his pioneering, innovative method client oriented breeding (COB) in India and Nepal. The new varieties are improving the livelihoods of over 5M households. They are grown on at least 500,000 ha and provide a 15-40% yield advantage over the varieties grown traditionally. In India, the two Ashoka rice varieties alone (200F and 228) are estimated to provide benefits of £17M annually to the poorest farming households.
Category of impact
- Health/Quality of life
- Societal
- Economic
Research outputs (7)
- Published
Plant breeding can be made more efficient by having fewer, better crosses
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Participatory research approaches rapidly improve household food security in Nepal and identify policy changes required for institutionalisation
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
- Published
Participatory plant breeding is better described as highly client-oriented plant breeding. I. Four indicators of client-orientation in plant breeding
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review