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Development of Breeding and Water Management Technologies for Safe and Nutritious Rice Production

Bioresources

People's Republic of Bangladesh

Development of Breeding and Water Management Technologies for Safe and Nutritious Rice Production

Enabling the production of safe, nutritious rice in the world’s most arsenic-polluted region!

Principal Investigator

- Associate Prof.
  KAMIYA Takehiro
  Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo
- Prof. Md.
  Rafiqul Islam
  Department of Soil Science, Bangladesh Agricultural University

ODA Recipient Country

People's Republic of Bangladesh

Research Institutions in Japan

The University of Tokyo / The National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) / Akita Prefectural University

Research Institutions in Counterpart Country

Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) / Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) / Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture (BINA) / Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE)

Adoption fiscal year

FY 2021

Research Period

5 Years

Overview of the Research Project

Lay the foundations for breeding high nutritional value/low arsenic content rice and develop cultivation technology
Bangladesh is one of the world’s leading growers and consumers of rice. This means that health damage caused by ingesting a poisonous element (arsenic) via rice consumption is a major social concern, as are deficiency diseases (hidden hunger) caused by the low levels of trace nutrients (iron and zinc) in rice. In this project, we are aiming to use breeding and water management technologies to establish technologies for the production of safe rice with a low arsenic content and rice with high nutritional value containing high levels of iron and zinc.

Making safe, healthy rice the norm!
Establishing technologies for breeding and cultivating safe, highly nutritious rice and encouraging their adoption in Bangladesh will improve the health of the population. The technologies obtained in the course of this project can also be used in other regions of the world facing similar problems.