While on one hand people across the world fall victim to torrential rains that lead to floods and mudslides, on the other, scientists are planning for future surviving against it.
More than three billion people live on rice as their staple food, and once lush by flood most rice plants die within a week of being underwater. Considering it, scientists have identified a gene that will allow rice plants to survive being completely submerged in water for up to two weeks! – the standard period needed for flooding to get subsided.
The new gene will surely offer greater protection to the world’s rice harvest, the researchers hope. The gene — called Sub1A-1 — will give the plants greater protection against damaging flooding. It will also offer farmers greater protection to crop, especially for those living in vulnerable areas.
