Genetic resource and the role of international collaboration in rice breeding

Abstract

The international efforts in rice research have led to self-sufficiency and surpluses in many of the south and southeast Asian countries. The trend must continue to meet the growing demand for rice. The global partnership in plant genetic resources has played a significant role in ensuring long-term preservation of and access by researchers to the gene pool worldwide. Large numbers of high-yielding varieties with resistance to diseases and insect pests have been released by the collaborating countries and have both increased national average yields and stabilized rice production. Now, the yields must increase further, as more rice needs to be produced from less land with less labour and pesticides. The new plant type being developed at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) seems to have the potential to produce 20-25% more grain than the best of our modern varieties. With the growing complexity of problems, the demand for diverse genetic materials is also increasing. It is no wonder that some of the recently released varieties have genes from as many as 60 or more diverse donors. These developments owe a lot to the free exchange of germplasm among breeders. However, the ever-increasing restrictions on the flow of genetic materials due to political and plant-health requirements pose serious threats to future varietal-improvement programs. Similarly, the problem of genetic erosion continues, and shrinking research support reduces the flexibility of programs. This paper reviews and discusses some of these and other related issues and their implications for rice breeding in the future.Key words: genetic resource, new plant type, marker-aided selection, pedigree complexity, International Network for Genetic Evaluation of Rice (INGER).