The rice paddy of Daeng Dee Farm in Lampang’s Hang Chat district turns golden yellow. Within a week, the farm owner Saman Supukkawanich, 55, will harvest a new glutinous rice variety known as the hom naga.
“I like trying new things. When I learnt about the new sticky rice strain, I did not hesitate to grow it on my 20 rai plot of land. The plant is strong. I do not need to use any pesticides. Each rice panicle looks healthy and I am sure the yield will be high,” he said.
Hom naga is a hybrid rice variety jointly developed by a research team at the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Biotec) and the National Science and Technology Development Agency, Kasetsart University and Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna.
The initial aim was to help farmers overcome major plant diseases such as rice blast caused by a…
