Abstract
Rice is a staple food in West Africa, where its demand keeps increasing due to population growth. Hence, there is an urgent need to identify high yielding rice cultivars that fulfill this demand locally. Rice hybrids are already known to significantly increase productivity. This study evaluated the potential of Asian hybrids with good adaptability to irrigated and rainfed lowland rice areas in Mali, Nigeria, and Senegal. There were 169 hybrids from China included in trials at target sites during 2009 and 2010. The genotype × environment interaction was highly significant (p < 0.0001) for grain yield indicating that the hybrids’ and their respective cultivar checks’ performance differed across locations. Two hybrids had the highest grain yield during 2010 in Mali, while in Nigeria, four hybrids in 2009 and one hybrid in 2010 had higher grain yield and matured earlier than the best local cultivar. The milling recovery, grain shape and cooking features of most hybrids had the quality preferred by West African consumers. Most of the hybrids were, however, susceptible to African rice gall midge (AfRGM) and Rice Yellow Mottle Virus (RMYV) isolate Ng40. About 60% of these hybrids were resistant to blast. Hybrids need to incorporate host plant resistant for AfRGM and RYMV to be grown in West Africa.
Highlights
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most important staple food crop in the world
Hybrid rice seed technology was developed in China more than 35 years ago
Many of the released rice hybrids have shown between 15% and 20% grain yield advantage over inbred cultivars in Asia, South America, and Egypt [26,27]
Summary
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the most important staple food crop in the world. About 3.5 billion people depend on rice globally, since this staple provides in excess of 20% of their daily calorie intake [1]. Nigeria would require almost one third of this additional rice [2]. More than 90% of West African rice farmers are smallholders (mostly women) who cultivate less than 1 ha and whose crop yields depend on rainfall. Crop production from these small plots is often insufficient to provide a reasonable household income for maintaining a minimum standard of living
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