Rice
Flood-tolerance

In areas subject to flooding, farmers have long planted flood tolerant varieties known as deepwater rice. In South and South East Asia, flooding affects some 20 million hectares (49 million acres) each year. Flooding has historically led to massive losses in yields, such as in the Philippines, where in 2006, rice crops worth $65 million were lost to flooding.

Standard rice varieties cannot withstand stagnant flooding for more than about a week, since it disallows the plant access to necessary requirements such as sunlight and gas exchange. The Swarna Sub1 cultivar can tolerate week-long submergence, consuming carbohydrates efficiently and continuing to grow. So-called " scuba rice" with the Sub1A transgene is robustly tolerant of submergence for as long as two weeks, offering much improved flood survival for farmers' crops. IRRI has created Sub1A varieties and distributed them to Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Nepal, and the Philippines.
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