High Yielding and Lodging Resistant Rice Variety Developed for Medium and Up-land Ecology

Abstract

Hailstorms and violent thunderstorms are common during grain filling and maturity stages of Boro rice in West Bengal, Bihar, and Odisha, and it cause lodging, leading to pre-harvest sprouting and reduced grain yield. In view of the importance of the requirement of lodging-resistant rice genotypes, an effort was made to develop lodging-tolerant rice genotype. A dwarf variety was developed through the pedigree method of breeding. The variety was tested under AICRIP and subsequently released for cultivation in West Bengal. The average plant height of the variety was 87.0 cm, and was found to be highly lodging tolerant. The average grain yield was 5885.00 kg/ha
with short, bold grain. Head rice recovery was 63.60%. As the variety is dwarf, no stables remain in the field after harvest. This is the added advantage for cultivation where the straw burning is outlawed. To characterize the DNA level, a total of 29 SSR markers were used with standard varieties. In a nutshell, the variety is suitable to cultivate in storm prone areas in up and medium land situations.