Balcony farmers' most "homely" dwarf rice

Want to experience the fun of growing rice on your balcony or rooftop vegetable garden? A rice variety about 50 centimeters tall that can help people fulfill their wishes. The Council of Agriculture pointed out that this dwarf rice variety can be grown in containers that can store water, allowing people to personally experience the fun of growing rice on their balconies or rooftops, from raising seedlings, transplanting, heading, fruiting to harvesting. This variety has a less sticky rice grain and a lower-than-average taste, so it is mostly grown for viewing or as an internship for students.

Dwarf rice varieties can be grown in containers that can store water, allowing people to experience the fun of growing rice on their balconies or rooftops, from raising seedlings, transplanting, heading, fruiting to harvesting. (Photo courtesy of the Council of Agriculture)

Tsai Chih-jung, secretary-general of the Agricultural Research Institute, pointed out that the National Crop Seed Center of the Agricultural Research Institute preserves more than 10,000 varieties of rice seeds for use by Taiwan's rice breeders. These more than 10,000 rice varieties originally cover a wide variety of rice varieties; in addition to the familiar rice quality classifications of japonica rice, indica rice, and glutinous rice, the cultivation methods can be used to distinguish between two types of rice: water rice and upland rice.

The differences in plant appearance include the color of the rice grains, which include white, yellow, red, purple and black; the color of the leaves, which include light green, green, dark green, red and purple-red; the plant height ranges from 35 cm to 200 cm; the growth habits have various maturity periods; and the different resistances to various adversities (high temperature, drought, diseases and pests, etc.) constitute the diversity of the genetic resources of the Seed Center Rice.

Cai Zhirong said that compared with most field-cultivated rice varieties that have a plant height of 100 to 150 centimeters and an ear length of 20 to 35 centimeters, the dwarf rice preserved in the Agricultural Experimental Institute's Seedling Center has a plant height of about 50 centimeters, which is only 1/2 to 1/3 the height of ordinary rice, but can produce rice ears that are 16 centimeters long.

The dwarf rice variety belongs to the indica rice, the rice grains are less sticky and the taste is medium to low. (Photo courtesy of the Council of Agriculture)

The Agricultural Experiment Station emphasized that dwarf rice varieties belong to the indica rice variety, the rice grains are less sticky, and the taste is of medium to low quality. In addition to being used as a breeding plant for agricultural researchers, this dwarf rice is also shorter and less likely to fall over, so it can be planted by urban residents on their own balconies or roof gardens, allowing them to experience the hard work and fun of growing rice themselves.

Dwarf rice is also suitable as internship material for natural science or life science for students at all levels. The growing period is 4 months from seed germination, seedling cultivation, transplanting, heading, fruiting to harvesting. The entire life of rice can be observed and recorded in one semester. Students can also experience the hard work of farmers, who know that "every grain of rice on the plate is the result of hard work."