Vietnam conducts project on rice gene resource management

The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) has recently approved a project on managing dry-land rice\'s genetic resources in Vietnam, reported Vietnam\'s state-run news agency on Tuesday. Quoting the source with MARD, the report said the project will receive funding from the Asian Food and Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (AFACI) and be conducted by the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences until 2014, with cooperation from related agencies and localities. It aims to preserve the genetic resources of dry-land rice and encourage farmers to use those resources in a sustainable way, contributing to ensure food security in Vietnam. It also helps limit the loss of genetic resources due to the narrowing of the cultivation area and improve the quality and quantity of dry-land rice genes stored in the national plant gene bank. The project expects to collect genetic materials of about 200 additional dry-land rice varieties, increasing the total number of rice varieties stored by the bank to 800, said the ministry.