{"id":1946698,"date":"2026-05-20T05:24:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T02:24:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1946698"},"modified":"2026-05-20T05:24:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T02:24:21","slug":"nottingham-scientists-developing-drought-resistant-rice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1946698","title":{"rendered":"Nottingham scientists developing ‘drought-resistant’ rice"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/1723\/live\/a4357880-539b-11f1-8bda-6f0ca37d5ead.jpg”]<\/p>\n

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\"BBCBBC<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Rice plants are X-rayed as part of the research<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Scientists at the University of Nottingham are helping to develop new varieties of rice that may be able to withstand drought.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Rice is a primary food staple for billions of people, with over half the world’s population eating it every single day.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Growing it, however, requires huge amounts of fresh water, and yields are being impacted as climate change makes rainfall increasingly unpredictable.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Professor Erik Murchie, one of the University of Nottingham researchers, said: “A 1C rise in global temperatures cuts rice yields by 6%, and fierce heatwaves worsen this situation.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“UK-based research supports breeding efforts that go straight from our labs and into rice fields in rice-growing countries.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Professor<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Professor Erik Murchie says rises in global temperatures are affecting rice yields<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The researchers are experimenting with rice plants with climate-resilient gene variants in special “growth rooms” at the university’s Sutton Bonington campus.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Professor Ranjan Swarup said the rooms allowed them to simulate conditions and see how different plants responded to heat stress and drought.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“In this day and age, when global food security is a big issue facing world agriculture and we have to improve food production in a sustainable way, we are looking at root traits which can improve resilience,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The rice plants are also analysed in a micro-CT scanner at the university’s Hounsfield Facility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Hounsfield director Professor Craig Sturrock said it allowed researchers to visualise how roots responded to changes in climate without damaging them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“There might be a deeper, steeper root angle that gives that plant a benefit to capture more water that’s deeper into the soil profile, and we can then identify which gene controls that and use it in a breeding programme,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Nottingham team has been working with other scientists and rice breeders at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Plants with the identified gene variants are due to be tested under “field conditions” for three years in the Philippines, where the IRRI is based.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“We’re working with them to measure the right things so we can understand the biological origins of heat stress tolerance and drought tolerance,” Murchie said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"A<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Researchers are trying to understand how different root structures respond to changing conditions<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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The research is funded by the International Climate Finance (ICF) – a government initiative to help developing nations respond to climate change.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The UK imports all of the rice it consumes, mainly from “climate-vulnerable” countries such as Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Thailand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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International Development Minister Jenny Chapman said: “Instability in the Middle East and the growing impact of extreme weather are putting pressure on global food production.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“This matters for developing countries, and the cost of food which hits our shelves at home.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Listen to <\/i>BBC Radio Nottingham on Sounds<\/i> and follow BBC Nottingham on <\/i>Facebook<\/i>, on <\/i>X<\/i>, or on <\/i>Instagram<\/i>. Send your story ideas to <\/i>eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk<\/i> or via <\/i>WhatsApp<\/i> on 0808 100 2210.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cy52g411d67o”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/1024\/branded_news\/1723\/live\/a4357880-539b-11f1-8bda-6f0ca37d5ead.jpg”] BBC Rice plants are X-rayed as part of the research Scientists at the University of Nottingham are helping to develop new varieties of rice that may be able to withstand drought. Rice is a primary food staple for billions of people, with over half the world’s population eating it every single day. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35,226],"class_list":["post-1946698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-bbc-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1946698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1946698\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1946698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1946698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1946698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}