成果の概要

Upon invitation from the University of Hohenheim, Germany, I participated at the AMAIZE-P workshop, where I gave a scientific talk on breeding for phosphate efficiency, and an educational talk to students on how to deal with internal P utilization efficiency in plant breeding. In Madagascar I made a series of field visits at four lowland and two upland experimental sites. We made selections based on estimated yield and on general phenotypic appearance. Criteria were earliness, medium plant height and panicle size. These traits had been mentioned by most farmers as their primary criteria for choosing a new variety. Selections were followed by harvests of breeding lines. At all sites farmers expressed their desire to keep some of the harvested grain in order to test our breeding lines in their own fields next season. I furthermore explored potential new field sites in the coastal North-Western region of Madagascar around the main rice region of Marovoay. Salinity is one of the main stresses in the dry season at that location and salt-affected fields were identified for an initial salinity tolerance screening to be conducted from May-October 2019. I visited the regional office of FOFIFA and the local University to discuss the details on how to manage these experiments, and how to support them financially. At the FZ Juelich (Germany) I met with four scientists to further advance our collaboration on modeling root growth and P uptake, on investigating the longevity of different root classes and root hairs, and on using remote sensing as a tool in breeding.