Substance Team for VUB Activities with Part of APPERTANI Management, 27 Desember 2022

APPERTANI has completed collaboration with PSE-KP and Palladium in the Australia-Indonesia Partnership for Promoting Rural Incomes through Support for Markets in Agriculture (PRISMA) project with the topic “Policies and Strategies for Increasing the Use of New Superior Rice Varieties.”

The use of new superior rice varieties (VUB) by farmers has been massive, exceeding 90% of the planted area. The process of replacing the use of rice VUB has occurred in the community, although it requires quite a long time. Farmers are reluctant to change varieties after finding suitable varieties, because the supply of breeder seed until the extension seeds are produced by seed producers refers to market demand which causes the process of changing varieties to be slow. Breeders are challenged to produce varieties that are really superior, not only high productivity and adaptive to specific environments, but also in accordance with market preferences.

Strategies to increase the use of VUB rice seeds can also be carried out through: Availability of quality rice seeds, increasing VUB seed program packages, guaranteeing seed quality, facilitating improvements in infrastructure for seed producers, empowering Village Seed Production Groups to meet seed needs at the farmer group level, and socializing excellence location specific VUB.

It is necessary to develop forms and models of cooperation and integration related to the unification of Research and Development Institutions into National Research Innovation Agency (BRIN) to ensure the continuity of variety innovation and the provision of breeder seeds. The development of new breeding methods needs to be continued, such as genome editing and genetic engineering to accelerate the production of new VUBs that suit preferences with productivity advantages and are environmentally specific adaptive. This needs to be followed by regulations that are simple but still consider the aspect of prudence.