The creator of disease-resistant varieties claims that a type of rice that provides food for five million families in South East Asia has been saved from extinction.
Jumli Marshi rice is a staple food for people in Nepal, Pakistan, and India that is very nutritious, but the old variety is prone to disease.
John Witcombe, a professor at Bangor University, has assisted Nepalese farmers in saving it.
He described it as "the fruit of 13 years of work in partnership with Nepalese rice breeder Resham Amgai.".
In this challenging environment of high-altitude rice cultivation, a disease-resistant Jumli Marshi will be a game changer for farmers, he continued.
10,000 feet above sea level, in western Nepal, is where the sweet, pinkish-colored rice is grown.
It is regarded as being suitable for people with diabetes because it is high in fiber, proteins, and minerals like iron, calcium, and phosphorus.
However, because the variety, which is thought to have been first domesticated 550 years ago, was threatened by the serious plant disease blast fungus, Nepalese farmers were forced to switch to other crops.
Prof. Witcombe, a plant breeding expert, collaborated with indigenous farmers to introduce a gene that was originally created in the Philippines in the 1980s to create three disease-resistant varieties of Jumli Marshi.
The farmer community in Jumla has been fighting to protect the regional varieties, so this development has been well-received, he said.
