Farmers' Preference for Rice Traits: Insights from Farm Surveys in Central Luzon, Philippines, 1966-2012.

Many modern rice varieties (MVs) have been released but only a few have been widely adopted by farmers. To understand farmers' preferences, we characterized MVs released in the Philippines from 1966 to 2013 and identified important characteristics of the varieties that were widely adopted in Central Luzon using farm surveys conducted in 1966-2012. We found that farmers adopt MVs that are high yielding, mature faster, and have long and slender grains, high milling recovery, and intermediate amylose content. The amylose content of adopted varieties has been declining, suggesting value in developing softer rice. To have a high potential for adoption, new MVs should have characteristics within the ranges of values observed for the adopted MVs. In addition, new MVs should have higher head rice recovery, less chalky grains, and better resistance to pests and diseases. Most MVs released in 2005-2013 compared poorly in these three traits. To reduce the risk of severe outbreaks, broad spectrum resistance should be incorporated into new MVs. This analysis of five decades of farm surveys provides insights into the varietal characteristics preferred by farmers which could contribute to the establishment of a product profile for developing improved MVs that are more targeted and, hence, would have high potential for adoption by farmers in Central Luzon and similar areas. We recommend a similar analysis be done in other major rice growing regions to aid the development of MVs that are more responsive to farmers' needs and preferences.

Rice yields in tropical/subtropical Asia exhibit large but opposing sensitivities to minimum and maximum temperatures.

Data from farmer-managed fields have not been used previously to disentangle the impacts of daily minimum and maximum temperatures and solar radiation on rice yields in tropical/subtropical Asia. We used a multiple regression model to analyze data from 227 intensively managed irrigated rice farms in six important rice-producing countries. The farm-level detail, observed over multiple growing seasons, enabled us to construct farm-specific weather variables, control for unobserved factors that either were unique to each farm but did not vary over time or were common to all farms at a given site but varied by season and year, and obtain more precise estimates by including farm- and site-specific economic variables. Temperature and radiation had statistically significant impacts during both the vegetative and ripening phases of the rice plant. Higher minimum temperature reduced yield, whereas higher maximum temperature raised it; radiation impact varied by growth phase. Combined, these effects imply that yield at most sites would have grown more rapidly during the high-yielding season but less rapidly during the low-yielding season if observed temperature and radiation trends at the end of the 20th century had not occurred, with temperature trends being more influential. Looking ahead, they imply a net negative impact on yield from moderate warming in coming decades. Beyond that, the impact would likely become more negative, because prior research indicates that the impact of maximum temperature becomes negative at higher levels. Diurnal temperature variation must be considered when investigating the impacts of climate change on irrigated rice in Asia.