A new rice breed has been developed by Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau and the Missouri Rice Research and Merchandising Council (MRRMC). Dr. Mike Aide, professor of agriculture, says MM17 is the school’s first-ever release of a new rice variety and it has been about one decade in the making.
Missouri college develops new rice variety
“It is a cross between a variety from Italy and one of our own lines and it showed excellent characteristics for taste as well as yield as well as palatability issues,” Aide tells Brownfield Ag News.
He says MM17 rice will be available for the 2019 planting season.
Aide says the rice is beneficial for Asian cuisine, including sushi.
“We are very hopeful that restaurants from St. Louis to New York City will be buying Missouri rice,” he says.
The variety from Italy is medium grain, crossed with an experimental line from the Cooperative Uniform Regional Rice Nursery, a multi-state program.
According to Aide, Missouri has about 200,000 acres of rice – most being long grain.
By Julie Harker of Brownfield Ag News
