Developing extra-long Grain, Early Maturing and High Yielding Basmati Rice Variety for Flood-Prone Areas of Pakistan

Abstract

High-yielding and quality grain rice varieties with submergence tolerance has now become foremost objective of rice breeding research world-wide after loss of thousands of acres due to frequent floods for last five years. New flood tolerant, fertilizer-responsive, high yielding varieties can increase income of poor farmers in the face of considerable rise in floods and world population. To cope with this situation, a new improved high yielding, extra-long grain variety also suitable for flood-prone areas of Pakistan was developed. The variety named as Chenab Basmati was bred by hybridizing line 98PP4 with line 4439 during 1998-99. The pedigree method of selection continued up to seventh filial generation at Rice Research Institute Kala Shah Kaku, Pakistan. The selection was accompanied with marker assisted selection in MAS lab; whereas phenotypic field screening in submergence tank constructed at RRI KSK. It was tested in fine grain yield trials and regional adaptability trials to compare this improved candidate variety with Super Basmati and Basmati 515 as checks. The overall average yield of Chenab Basmati in all the in-station and out-station yield trials was 4.52 t/ha in comparison with 3.65 t/ha of Super Basmati and 3.90 t/ha of Basmati 515. It was observed that the advanced line showed a yield advantage of 24% and 16% over check varieties i.e., Super Basmati and Basmati 515, respectively. Among grain quality attributes, its head rice recovery (58%) and grain length (7.61mm) were found better than checks. Chenab Basmati showed tolerance index of more than 0.9 during both the years indicating its potential to be used as flood tolerant variety.