PROGRESS AND CHALLENGES OF PRODUCING SUPER YIELDING HYBRID BASMATI RICE IN KENYA DR. PAUL NJIRUH NTHAKANIO FUNDED / COLLABORATORS NCST, TUK, UoN, NIB, KARI

1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background : rice production in Kenya In Kenya rice is mainly grown in Mwea, Ahero, Bunyala, West Kano, Yala Swamp (MoA, 2011) About 98% of Mwea rice is Basmati. By year 2030 Kenya population is expected to be 60.0million.

1.2 Rice Situation in Kenya Table1. Source: NCPB and Department of Land, Crops Development and Management, USDA Year 2006 2030 2050 Kenya Population 38m 60m ?? Production (Tones) 64,840 Area (ha) 23,106

1.3 Food security is a major Problem High yielding varieties (HYV) dwarf rice varieties have reached breeding plateau (Kropff et al., 1994). Green revolution technology now need re-innovation. Low yield per hectare of Basmati rice (4.1ha) (Ministry of Agriculture, 2010).

1.4 Heterosis and Food Security Hybridization has been used to increase rice yield per hectare (Jinks, 1983; Zhang, 2010 ; Yuan, 1994). To make a cross Male and female parents are needed. a) Female need to have non-viable male gametes so that they can be crossed with another variety. b) Male parent: need to have viable pollen.

1.4 Male emasculation Main methods include genetic emasculation using a) Cytoplasmic male sterile (CMS) lines b) EGMS (PGMS and TGMS) PGMS – photoperiod sensitive genic male sterile lines. TGMS - thermosentive genic male sterile lines

1.5 Objective Use hybrid rice technology to raise yield i) Introduce EGMS in Kenya and test for their adaptability ii) Develop Basmati with EGMS gene iii) Produce hybrid by crossing EGMS-Basmati with conventional Basmati.

2. MATERIALS EGMS included; Photoperiod sensitive male sterile (PGMS) rice and Thermosentive genic male sterile lines. PGMS Rice V1 - IR-73827-23-76-15-7S V3 - IR-75589-31-27-8-33S TGMS Rice V2 - IR-77271-42-5-4-36S Basmati370

3. METHODS 3.1 Test for EGMS adaptability Sowing of EGMS Growth at Sterility and assess spikelet fertility Growth under fertility inducing conditions and assess spikelet fertility

3.1.1 Sowing of EGMS in greenhouse a b Fig. 1 EGMS growing in a greenhouse. Fig. a and b show EGMS and the greenhouse respectively

3.1.2 Complete male sterile EGMS a b c Fig. 2 EGMS under sterility inducing conditions. Fig a shows EGMS growing in paddy trough, Fig.b is a sterile panicle while Fig.c is pollen from sterile panicle.

3.1.3 Reversion of EGMS to fertility a b Fig. 3. EGMS grown in fertility inducing conditions . Fig. a,b&c shows EGMS rice plant, panicles and pollen from plants grown under fertility inducing conditions respectively with grains.

3. 2 Evaluation of spikelet fertility Table. 1 3.2 Evaluation of spikelet fertility Table. 1. Pollen and seed set rate of EGMS under SIC and FIC. LDL, HT, NDL and NT refer to long day-light length, High temperature, Normal day-light length and normal temperature respectively.   Rice line Treatment Fertile Pollen (blue black staining pollen) % Average Seed set per panicle % 1 V1PGMS LDL + HT 2 V2TGMS LDL + HT 3 V3PGMS 0.33 HT +NDL V3 PGMS 0.67 NT +NDL 64 45 NT+NDL 60 30 55 26 59.67 33.67

3.3 Production of hybrid seeds. a b c Fig. 4 Hybrid rice. Fig. a show hybrid rice. Fig. a and c shows hybrid rice plants with deep anthocyanin at the base of the plant.

3.4 Doubled haploid Fig. 5 Calli from anthers of hybrid plants.

Challenges Quality traits in Basmati are under recessive gene control Daylength in the tropics 12hours, not long enough to induce sterility gene particularly in PGMS Temperature fluctuation : may not completely induce complete sterility. Incompatibility of Basmati male restorer lines with EGMS

Challenges continues Recalcitrance in regenerating plants from F1 between EGMS and Basmati calli Albinism in regenerants

Summary of achievements EGMS - were very adaptable in Kenya First hybrids have been realized Recombinant inbreed aimed at developing EGMS genes in Basmati background is at 3rd forth generation Very good response anthers to callusing

Conclusion Production of hybrid using EGMS has been very success in greenhouse. Thus use of hybrid rice seeds is very promising

Acknowledgement National Council for Science and Technology Collaborating institutions (TUK, UoN, NIB, KARI)

THANK YOU