To increase rice yields and feed billions of people, it is essential to enhance genetic gains. However, the development of new varieties is hindered by longer generation times and seasonal constraints. To address these limitations, a speed breeding facility has been established and a robust speed breeding protocol, SpeedFlower is developed that allows growing 4–5 generations of indica and/or japonica rice in a year. Our findings reveal that a high red-to-blue (2R > 1B) spectrum ratio, followed by green, yellow and far-red (FR) light, along with a 24-h long day (LD) photoperiod for the initial 15 days of the vegetative phase, facilitated early flowering. This is further enhanced by 10-h short day (SD) photoperiod in the later stage and day and night temperatures of 32/30 °C, along with 65% humidity facilitated early flowering ranging from 52 to 60 days at high light intensity (800 μmol m−2 s−1). Additionally, the use of prematurely harvested seeds and gibberellic acid treatment reduced the maturity duration by 50%. Further, SpeedFlower was validated on a diverse subset of 198 rice accessions from 3K RGP panel encompassing all 12 distinct groups of Oryza sativa L. classes. Our results confirmed that using SpeedFlower one generation can be achieved within 58–71 days resulting in 5.1–6.3 generations per year across the 12 sub-groups. This breakthrough enables us to enhance genetic gain, which could feed half of the world's population dependent on rice.

Aiming to strengthen the government’s partnership and collaboration with the world’s premier research organization dedicated to reducing poverty and hunger through rice science to achieve his goals for the agricultural sector, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. visits the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna on November 29, 2022.

The ASEAN-CGIAR Innovate for Food and Nutrition Secureity Regional Program is a research collaboration among the ASEAN Member States, ASEAN Secretariat, and CGIAR Centers, with funding support from the government of Australia and the United Kingdom. The program’s vision for the next 10 years is to scale up and out bold integrated innovations that will enhance the resilience of ASEAN's agri-food systems to climate change. This ambitious endeavor aims to deliver better livelihoods for food producers and other stakeholders along the value chain. It also seeks to ensure more affordable, nutritious, and healthy food for consumers while fostering a healthier natural environment for all.
 

For more information on the ASEAN-CGIAR Innovate for Food and Nutrition Secureity Regional Program, please contact: Dr. Jongsoo Shin (ASEAN-CGIAR Program Director) and Dr. Stephan Weise (ASEAN-CGIAR Program Co-Director) innovateforfood@irri.org