Diseases hamper rice production – JICA

DISEASES and viruses are a major constraint to rice production as over 30 viruses have been reported from rice fields globally, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Chief Representative Norihito Yonebayashi has said.

Speaking to The Scoop, Mr. Yonebayashi said JICA conducted field surveys in Luapula, Northern, Western, and Eastern provinces of Zambia to determine the occurrence of Rice Yellow Mottle Virus (RYMV) and its genetic relationship with global isolates of the virus.

He said although RYMV had been reported from 29 African countries, there was a dearth of information on its occurrence and any other rice-infecting viruses in farmers’ fields in Zambia.

 “Rice Yellow Mottle Virus (RYMV) is widespread in mainland Africa and adjoining islands but to date, its occurrence in Zambia is unknown. However, 33 paddy rice fields were visited and 108 leaf tissue samples were collected for analysis. The incidence of yellow mottle symptoms ranged from 25% to 43%.

 “The characterization of rice production among small-scale rice farmers in Zambia is largely attributed to a combination of biotic and abiotic constraints. A subset of 27 RYMV-positive samples was constituted from which full-length coat protein regions were amplified followed by bidirectional Sanger sequencing. Phylogenetic analysis of the coat protein cistron revealed distinct clustering of the isolates from Zambia in a monophyletic clade as a subtype of the RYMV strain S4,” Mr. Yonebayashi said.

He said the results confirmed for the first-time an occurrence of RYMV strain S4 in Zambia and further reinforced the need for phytosanitary vigilance to safeguard rice production in Zambia adding that that market-oriented rice development project decided to commence its rice production training for the 2023/24 farming season.

“We have commenced the rice production training for the forthcoming planting season with the aim to empower small scale farmers with the right set of skills needed to successfully grow rice in Zambia. There is a need for rice farmers in Zambia to have the knowledge in undertaking rice production as a business for sustainability. We are targeting about 9,000 small scale farmers to undergo the rice production training,” he said.

He said the program would train small scale farmers in rice production and sales, and thus, various training sessions including harvest, post-harvest processing, marketing, and business management would be included in the training.