The Pathum Thani Rice Research Center has developed a new rice variety that boasts strong resistance to insects and cooler temperatures.
Called Pathum Thani 200 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the province, the strain can be grown all year round and has high yields, centre director Apichart Lawanprasert said.
He said that the rice centre, a unit of the Rice Department, has taken more than a decade to develop the strain, a hybrid of the famous Suphanburi 1 and IR 64 strains.
The hybrid variety is resistant to the brown planthopper, a pest that feeds on rice plants and always causes severe damage to rice farming.
The new variety, also known as Kor. Khor. 57, is suitable for growing not only in irrigated sites in central provinces but also in areas that have cooler weather such as the North.
The rice centre is in the process of producing the strain as rice seed before distribution to farmers.
Mr Apichart said Pathum Thani 200 white rice is ideal not only for the dining table but for making raw material such as rice flour, which could provide higher value.
But the new development might not reduce the problem of seed shortfalls for the Rice Department.
At present, the department produces about 100,000 tonnes of rice seed for the market every year. However, the amount is far below demand of 600,000 tonnes.
The balance is filled by products from private companies offering high-priced hybrid rice seed.
The sales prices for rice seed from the department are low at 25 baht a kilogramme for Hom Mali rice seed, 16-17 baht/kg for white rice and 22 baht/kg for glutinous rice.
Mr Apichart suggests farmers grow the new strain and process it because the rice seed has greater value than regular paddy seed.