Rice breeding in India: eight decades of journey towards enhancing the genetic gain for yield, nutritional quality, and commodity value

The contribution of rice breeding for ensuring food security in India is well known. Organized rice breeding is nearly eight decades old in the country which started with the establishment of Central Rice Research Institute at Cuttack in the year 1946. Thereafter, the rice breeding programmes have undergone several transformations to meet the needs of stakeholders at both regional and national level. For all the rice ecologies of the country, high yielding varieties were developed by deployment of the required genes. Initially the objectives were met only through phenotypic selections based on breeders' own skills. With time, the rice breeders of the country adopted the advances in the fields of science and technologies especially in the areas of plant sciences. From the initial phase of users of methodologies and materials developed elsewhere, the rice scientists of India have transformed themselves to discover useful genes from the vast germplasm resources of the country and utilize them as per the local requirements through marker assisted selection. Despite the progress made in last few decades, the genetic gain from breeding programmes is becoming stagnant over time and the increased yield in current years are now attributed more to production interventions. The rice breeders of India need to take advantage of the recent developments of speed breeding, whole genome sequences of various Oryza species, advanced phenomics and computational methods, high throughput genotyping platforms, tissue culture and genome editing tools etc. to shift from its current approach of "breeding by chance" to "breeding by design" and to bring significant improvements in the rate of genetic gain per generation.

Genotype x environment interaction and stability analysis of lowland rice genotypes

Twenty-one lowland rice genotypes were evaluated for their stability parameters with respect to grain yield in a multi-locational trial at five different sites of Eastern India viz. Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack (Orissa); OUAT, Bhubaneswar (Orissa); CRS, Masodha (UP); RAU, Pusa (Bihar) and RARS, North Lakhimpur (Assam). Pooled analysis of variance reflects existence of genotype x environment interactions and contribution of both linear and non-linear components to genotype x environment interactions. Through stability parameter analysis, it was found that Rayda B3, CR 778-95 and CR 661- 236 were suitable for all environments. The genotypes Sabita and OR 1358-RGA-4 were suitable for better environments. PSR 1209-2-3-2, CR 780-1937, Ambika, OR 877-ST-4-2, NDR 40055-2-1 and CR 662-2211 were identified for poor environments.

Effect of combined use of organic manure and nitrogen fertilizer on the performance of rice under flood-prone lowland conditions

Field experiments were conducted during the wet seasons of 1995 and 1996 at the Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Orissa, India using two rice cultivars, Matangini (improved) and Champaisali (local) to study the advantages of organic manuring in conjunction with inorganic fertilizer with the objective of enhancing rice productivity under semi-deep (0–65 cm) lowland conditions. In 1995, application of 10 t FYM/ha increased grain yield compared with no FYM. The yield produced with FYM alone was similar to the yield following the application of N fertilizer at 20 and 40 kg/ha. There was no significant difference in grain yield due to the application of 20 and 40 kg N/ha in plots treated with FYM. Nitrogen fertilization was effective only when FYM was not applied. In 1996, FYM application alone or in combination with N fertilizer had a beneficial effect on crop growth and grain yield. This was contrary to the results obtained in 1995 when N fertilization at 20–40 kg/ha did not prove beneficial in plots where FYM was applied. The yield due to application of FYM alone was similar to that from the application of 40 kg N/ha as urea. However, the maximum yield was produced when FYM application was supplemented with 40 kg N/ha. There was a significant interaction between N application rate and cultivar. Cultivar Matangini outyielded Champaisali in both years.