KASP™ technology to improve new rice varieties and farmers' livelihoods ( HUB to SPOKE)

Bangor University (BU) will manage this project to address the international challenge of increased rice production in selected countries across Asia for the alleviation of poverty. The project will apply KASP technology to conventional marker-assisted selection protocols that will accelerate breeding efficiencies for resistance to the two most serious diseases of rice - blast and BLB. LGC Genomics (UK private-sector) will develop novel KASP markers that can be exploited in marker-assisted backcrossing for disease resistance. They will be validated using mapping populations generated in a breeding programme to transfer these resistance targets to novel rice varieties (produced from 20 years of DFID funding). The breeding programme will be led by Anamolbiu Pvt Co. Ltd (Nepalese SME set up with some DFID assistance) supported by phenotyping and genotyping by the Nepal Agriculture Research Council (NARC). A KASP toolkit will be commercialised globally by LGC for rice breeders.