Advances in food technology and nutritional sciences

In the Philippines, rice is a primary agricultural crop and major caloric food source of Filipinos. Rice is produced in all of this archipelagic country’s provinces, wherein total production (~18.4 million MT) is ranked eighth in the world. PhilRice was established as a dedicated research and development arm to propel sustained rice yield growth and stability toward selfsufficient production. Supporting its rice varietal improvement program is its Gene bank, a national repository of localand foreign-sourced rice genetic materials. Currently, there are 14,388 rice accessions conserved at PhilRice Gene bank and 44% of which are landraces and traditional rice varieties. To date, 89% of the accessions have been Phenotypically characterized. To make these genetic materials desirable parent lines for rice breeding programs, a more comprehensive phenotypic characterization and evaluation of responses to various stresses remains to be done. A gene-bank’s capacity to explore genetic potential of its holdings using molecular technology advances could pinpoint important traits in potential parent lines that are valuable in developing better rice varieties. The bottom line among the challenges of rice gene banking is striking a balance between fund resource availability and undertaking the numerous core research activities, including collection, conservation, documentation, characterization, evaluation, distribution and dissemination of rice genetic materials.