MALAYSIAN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE

Technological Innovation from Research Institute

                                                   MARDI

                                          



MARDI is stand for Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute.a statutory body entrusted with conducting research in food and agriculture and agro-based industries in Malaysia. It was established under the MARDI Act (1969). MARDI's research efforts for almost 40 years have resulted in a variety of new crop varieties and clones, new breeds and management methods.

NEW VARIETIES BY MARDI

                


PADDY

Varietal development has been a mandate to MARDI since the 1970s and until today a total of 45 varieties have been released for planting in the granary areas. The breeding objectives varied in accordance to the needs of the different era. In the 1970’s Malaysia started to implement double-cropping for rice after the Japanese occupation. For successful double-cropping, the varieties must have a maturation period of less than 145 days and be non-photoperiodic. Almost all of the traditional varieties planted at that time were photoperiodic and would not flower until December when the days are shortest.

The first successful non-photoperiodic variety was Mahsuri, developed from a cross between Japonica and Indica, and it was released in 1965. It was an easy shattering variety suited for manual harvesting. Despite its short to medium grain type, it was widely planted because of the excellent eating quality. However, the plants were too tall and prone to lodging. Further, it was susceptible to blast disease. These factors motivated breeders to produce varieties that were shorter and resistant to blast. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, many crosses were made for the improvement of Mahsuri and Ria. Several successful varieties resulted from this programme, including improved Mahsuri, which farmers called by many names such as Apollo, Anak Dara and Mat Candu. Malinja, Mahsuri and Bahagia were accepted by farmers and were planted twice per year, but they were still prone to lodging since their heights were still too tall at 140-150 cm.

Breeding and selection for shorter plants produced rice varieties with culm heights of approximately 100 to 115 cm. These varieties were released to farmers between 1974 and 1990. From 1990 to 2006, selection for semi-dwarf plants was the primary objective. Thus, rice varieties released during those years possessed culm heights between 56 and 90 cm. These varieties showed significant increase in yield and varieties such as MR84, MR219, MR232 and MR253 showed average yields of approximately 6-8 tonnes per hectare.

HERBS

Recognizing the huge potential of the world herbs sector, Malaysia is enhancing efforts to develop the industry by utilizing the country's internal resources. According to MARDI's Principal Research Officer Research Officer Wan Zaki Wan Mamat, Malaysia has over 15,000 species of herbs and 12,000 of them have high pharmaceutical value.

To that end, MARDI, who has been entrusted with leading the country's herbal plants upstream industry, has set several steps covering various aspects including cultivation and product development, he told Bernama here. He said for now 65 percent of raw materials of national herbs come from China, India and Indonesia, but the government is working to reduce the imports by implementing various initiatives under the Economic Transformation Program (ETP).

TYPE OF HERBS

SELASIH

MAS COTEK