Saroj, an early maturing rice released in Bihar, India

Abstract

Early maturing rice varieties are predominantly grown in favorable uplands in rice-tobacco and rice-maize sequences. Attitudes of farmers about varieties have subtly changed. Farmers now prefer higher quality grain varieties, mainly as a result of food sufficiency. However, the choice is limited. A new variety, Prabhat, released a few years back with long slender grains, became popular. However, being an early duration variety (100 d), Prabhat’s ripening stage occurs during the rainy period. To develop high-yielding varieties with 115–120-d duration that will mature after cessation of rains and with superior grain quality, several crosses involving Type 3, a pureline selection from crosses using traditional Basmati rice as one of the parents, were made and their progenies evaluated in 1995-96. RAU1400-5-7-9-B-1, derived from Gautam/Type 3 with 115-d duration and long slender grain, was found to be superior and was subsequently evaluated in a multilocation trial. Its yield ranged from 4.2 to 4.5 t ha –1 in a state varietal trial (Table 1) and from 2.9 to 6.0 t ha –1 , with an average of 3.9 t ha –1 (Table 2), in the all-India coordinated trial conducted across the country. The average yield of national check Sasyasree was 4.3 t ha –1 . The test entry RAU1400-5-7-9-B-1, however, was 10 d earlier than the check and has long slender grain, similar to that of Type 3 (length [L] 7.15 mm, breadth [B] 1.73 mm, and L/B 4.15), and is consequently superior to Sasyasree. It has been named Saroj.