1. High Yielding NERICA Mutant Rice for Upland Areas and Hope for Bangladeshi Farmers
ID: 154
Mirza Mofazzal Islam, PhD
Chief Scientific Officer and Head
Plant Breeding Division
Bangladesh Institute of Nuclear Agriculture
BAU Campus, Mymensingh-2202
Bangladesh
Paper presented at the FAO/IAEA International Symposium on International Plant Mutation Breeding and Biotechnology, August 2018, Vienna, Austria

2. Causes of Drought Deficiency Human Causes Drying out of Surface
Rainfall or Precipitation
Deficiency
Human Causes
Drying out of Surface
Water Flow
Global Warming

3. Effects of Drought Droughts Reduced Crop yields
Environmental Impacts of
Droughts
Reduced Crop yields
Drying out of water bodies
Reduction in soil quality
Unsuitable conditions for plant
and vegetation survival
Migration and even death of
People, Animals and Wildlife

4. Bangladesh is a developing country and the main staple food is rice
Bangladesh is a developing country and the main staple food is rice. Without rice no meal is considered for the people of this country.
The total land area of Bangladesh is 1,47,570 sq km and the total cultivable land is million ha (BBS, 2016).
Now the days, the population of Bangladesh increasing and the land are decreasing. So, Bangladesh need to produce more rice with this limited cultivable land.
There are many approaches to develop rice variety. Mutation breeding is one of them.

6. In Bangladesh, the yield of Aus (upland) (Mid March- June) varieties is very low ( ) tha-1 due to limited water supply.
The Aus (upland) season is the water deficit season in Bangladesh. A strong drought can cause greater than 40% damage to broadcast Aus (upland) rice.
During the month of July-September, it also causes significant destruction to the T. Aman (rainfed) crop in approximately 2.32 million ha every year. In the rabi season, about 1.2 million ha of agricultural land face droughts of different magnitudes.

7. NERICA (New Rice for Africa) are the varieties which are developed by African Rice Center. NERICA was originated from progeny of O. sativa  O. glaberrima.
NERICA is upland rice grown in drought condition, growth duration ranges from days.
Adaptability of NERICA lines were tested for last several years, but these varieties are not adapted or accepted in Bangladesh.
This was a big challenge to overcome such defects or barriers in NERICA. Therefore, with this view the induced mutation was initiated to develop early, drought tolerant and high yielding rice variety(s).

8. Materials and Methods Given radiation: 250, 300, 350 Gy
Irradiated seed sample: 2000 seeds/each variety/each doses
Irradiation of 3 varieties (NERICA-1, NERICA-4 and NERICA-10)
Growing of M1 plants (2,000 Nos.)
Growing of M2 population (10,000 Nos.)
Phenotypic selection of M2 plants (556 Nos.)
Growing of M3 population (556 Nos.)
Selection of M4 Generation (37 Nos.)
Selection of M5 Generation (6 Nos.)
Follow Yield Trials/Multi-location trials
Released as Variety  

9. RESULTS
Performance of two NERICA-1, one NERICA-4 and one NERICA-10 mutants
Table 1. Mean values of parents and selected mutants for various plant parameters at M6 generation
Mutant
Days to
maturity
Plant height (cm)
Effective tillers
(no.)
Panicle length
(cm)
Filled grains/ panicle
Unfilled grains/panicle
(no)
1000
seed wt.
(g)
Grain yield (t/ha)
N1/250/P
108
102 13
25.6
180 27
23.8
5.1
N1/250/P
112
120 10
33.9
145 35
22.9
4.6
N4/250/P-1(2)
111
107
24.5
195 25
22.6
5.8
N4/350/P-4(5)
113
106 12
24.4
212 16
25.4
6.2
N4/250/P-2(6)-26
104 14
24.2 26
22.2
5.7
N10/350/P-5-4 91
125
23.3
4.5
NERICA-1(Parent)
121 7 49
26.9
2.9
NERICA-4(Parent)
118 99
105 37
28.1
3.9
NERICA-10(Parent)
123 98
23.5
28.0
3.2
Note: N1= NERICA-1, N4 = NERICA-4 and N10 = NERICA-10 (all are designated as mutant)

10. Field evaluation of a drought tolerant N4/350/P-4(5) mutant
Table 2. Morphological, agronomical, grain characters of the drought
tolerant NERICA-4 mutant (N4/350/P-4(5)) during Aus (upland) season, 2016
Mutant/variety
Plant height
(cm)
Days to maturity
No. of effective tillers/hill
No. of filled grains/panicle
1000 grain wt. (g)
N4/350/P-4(5)
106
100 12
108
24.0
BRRI dhan48 (check)*
103
104 10 93
25.0
*Popular variety

11. Table 3. Yield performance of the NERICA-4 mutant (N4/350/P-4(5)) at multi-location trials grown in Aus (upland) season 2016
Mutant/variety
Grain yield (tha-1)
Mean L1 L2 L3 L4 L5
N4/350/P-4(5)
6.11
4.73
6.22
3.94
3.95
4.99
BRRI dhan48 (check)
5.74
3.90
5.83
3.43
3.49
4.48
L1- Magura, L2- Mymensingh, L3- Khagrachari , L4- Godagari (Rajshahi ) and L5- Nokla (Sherpur)

12. Table 4. Grain characteristics of the NERICA-4 mutant
Mutant/variety
Milling Yield (%)
Head rice yield(%)
Chalkinessa
Whole grain length (mm)
Dehulled grainkernel-1
Amylose
(%)
Length (mm)
Breadth (mm)
LB-1 ratio
Size and shape
N4/350/P-4(5) 72 93
wb1
8.1
6.2
3.0
2.06
Medium
medium
23.5
BRRI dhan48 (check) 71 90
8.2
6.3
2.9
2.17
24.0
*Wb1 = Less than 10% chalkiness

13. Field evaluation of a drought tolerant N10/350/P-5-4mutant in Aus (upland) season
Table 5. Yield and yield contributing characters of the proposed drought
tolerant mutant rice and check variety grown in Aus (upland) season
Mutant/variety
Plant height
(cm)
Days to maturity
No. of filled grains/panicle
No. of effective tillers/hill
1000 grain wt. (g)
N10/350/P-5-4 98
105
140 15
23.5
BR26 (check)*
110
127 11
21.5
*Popular variety

14. Table 6. Yield performances of the NERICA- mutant at multi-location trials grown in Aus (upland) season 2017
Designation
Grain yield (t/ha)
Mean yield (t/ha) L1 L2 L3 L4 L5
N10/350/P-5-4
4.48
4.73
4.92
3.95
3.80
4.40
BR26 (check)
3.86
4.56
4.82
3.70
3.60
4.10
L1- Fulbaria (Mymensingh), L2- BINA sub-station, Nalitabari, L3- BINA sub-station, Magura, L4-Tanore (Rajshahi) and L5- Khagrachari.

15. Table 7. Grain characteristics of the proposed variety
mutant with std. checks
Milling yield (%)
Head rice yield
(%)
Chalkinessa
Whole grain length (mm)
Dehulled grain/kernel
Amylose content (%)
Length (mm)
Breadth (mm)
L/B ratio
Size and shape
N10/350/P-5-4 74 93
wb1
9.3
7.2
2.0
3.6
Long slender
25.1
BR26 (check) 71 91
9.1
7.0
3.5
22.7
a Wb1 = Less than 10% chalkiness

16. CONCLUSION
African rice NERICA cultivar have some problem viz. un-uniform flowering, late in maturity and low yielding in Bangladesh condition. With this view we initiated induced mutation to overcome these defects of NERICA rice at BINA.
Two mutants (viz.N4/350/P-4(5) and N10/350/P-5-4 ) out of six promising mutants have been identified for uniform flowering, early maturity ( days) , higher yield ( t/ha) and well adapted in Bangladesh condition.
These two mutants will be released for commercial cultivation in Bangladesh.

17. THANKS TO
ALL