Record Rice Yields in Egypt

ROME - Sep 5/06 - SNS -- Hybrid rive varieties developed under an FAO project have contributed to record rice yields in Egypt this year, the international agency says.

"The world's highest national average rice yield in 2005 was 9.5 (metric) tons (MT) per hectare from Egypt," the Executive Secretary of the International Rice Commission, Nguu Nguyen, told an international scientific conference on sustainable rice production in Krasnodar, Russia today.

Egypt's average yields were boosted by the introduction of newly-developed hybrid varieties such as SK 2034 and SK 2046, which outperformed the best local varieties by 20-30%. They were selected from more than 200 hybrid varieties under the FAO-led project, intended to help Egypt produce more rice with less water and less land.

Implemented by the Cairo Agricultural Research Centre and the Rice Research and Training Centre (RRTC), the project also helped train seed breeders and production personnel as well as extension workers and farmers.

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