During a field trip in 1996 to a Tien Phong field in Thai Binh Province, 100km southeast of Ha Noi, Binh noticed that among rice crops that were dying in the cold weather, a cluster was still alive with healthy grains. Binh, a biologist for the province’s Agricultural Research and Experiment Centre, recalled the words of a university lecturer who had said that there was a chance to create a new breed in every unusual case. With that in mind, Binh rooted the whole cluster and brought it home to study, renting a 720sq.m field to conduct the experiment himself.
As he worked with the samples, his son Dang Duc Ninh stayed beside him to help with the study. A student at the University of Agriculture, Ninh spent much of his time in the library researching different crossing technologies and other techniques to support his father’s study.
In 2003, Ninh returned to his hometown bearing all of his new knowledge. Ninh took the responsibility of experimenting with the BC15 breed in coastal districts Tien Hai, Kien Xuong and Thai Thuy on alum and saline soils.
"I wanted to test the breed in all difficult living conditions so that it will thrive when it is widely grown," Ninh said.
The breed showed a high degree of adaptability in the salty and acidic environments by the sixth trial.
In 2004, when the father-son team thought they were nearing success with the new breed, they encountered a problem. A farmer who was growing the breed lost half of his expected output due to a mistake in cultivation, and Binh and Ninh had to compensate for the farmer’s losses.
The two biologists worked through rain and extreme heat, and finally, after 12 experiments in the field, the new breed proved able to thrive in a variety of conditions. In the spring growing season of 2005, the breed was grown experimentally across the whole province and some districts of neighbouring provinces. The breed has been widely grown in the northern provinces since 2006 because of its high quality and output. Some households who agreed to try out the seed have harvested as much as 8.5 tonnes per hectare.
A brand name was born
The Thai Binh Seedling Joint Stock Company has bought the copyright for the BC15 seed for VND200 million (US$12,500) and aims to begin mass producing it.
According to the results of an evaluation by the Central Seedling Research Institute, BC15’s quality matches those of the famous rice varieties Tam or Bac Thom.
What’s more, the new breed fills a national need, according to the director of the Cultivation Department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Nguyen Chi Ngoc.
"The Government has spent a lot of money on research institutes to develop new seeds but the seedling products of those institutes can meet only a small portion of the demand," he said. "What Binh and his son have done should be appreciated for the huge benefit it provides."