WATCH: Black rice breeding program is creating food for the future

Professor Tobias Kretzschmar: Black rice is much more nutraceutical than white rice. So, it contains anthocyanins. They have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory properties and it's becoming a bit bit of a boom crop. So, for the farmers, the advantages are that the returns of investment are way higher. For the consumers, the benefits are that it's a healthier rice, it has a lower glycaemic index, so it doesn't raise the blood sugar levels that much and it's becoming part of a of a healthy lifestyle. This is a trial plot we have for our rice breeding program. It's part of an ARC Linkage Project that we have with the Natural Rice Co. The aim of the project is to adapt imported black rice to local environments. The way we're  achieving this is we're taking locally adapted rice that's been grown here, that's mostly brown  rice, and crossing it with black rice in order to achieve something that is locally adapted. 

 Dr Szabolcs Lehoczki-Krsjak: We started a breeding project two years ago, and  

with the first crosses. Since then, we continue  to doing new and new crosses in order to find the most adapted well-grown high yielding varieties suitable for this Northern Rivers region. Well, black rice has a little bit of special taste because it's not like polished white rice, it has a paricarpon which which gives it a little bit of a crunchy feeling when you when you start to chew it and also because of the paricarp and  the high anthocyanin and other nutrient content in the paricarp, it has a bit of a nutty taste.

Steve Rogers: This climate that we have is very unique for rice growing. It's probably the most unique dryland rice producing area in Australia. It's been great to work at Southern Cross University as a partner within this research project. Traditional paddy rice is not only a heavy water user, you know, it can be up to 16 megs to the hectare, you know, it's quite a massive water user but it's also a very high contributor to greenhouse gases. It's responsible for up to 12 to 16% of the world's greenhouse gases in the form of methane. When you grow rice like this, you eliminate that methane. It's where food needs to be going into the future.