Pure Line Selection, New Increasing Yield Technique for Common Local Rice Varieties

One of the important methods in the production of new rice varieties is the use of the pure lines selection from the mass landrace rice varieties. Hashemi is one of the landrace cultivars which is cultivated over the years by rice farmers. Also, the quality of cooking and grain-eating consequently favorable marketability is another reason for the continued cultivation of this cultivar. Continuous rice cultivation and the use of the self-cultivating seed of this cultivar have led Hashemi to become a massively diverse variety in the Guilan province.

Accordingly, the all suited lines of this massive impure papulation were collected and selected from 2010, and their genotype varieties confirmed by molecular marker breeding (genotyping). This breeding program has provided 35 pure lines with considerable genetic varieties, all named Hashemi. Sixteen out of these new recognized rice lines (35) finally selected through sustainability and yield evaluation over four years of trials. The selection of pure lines was carried out based on plant height, earliness, grain length, and grain cooking quality characters. Out of the 16 top lines, the best line has been selected for the elite and certified seeds production process. Over the course of two years, 2016 and 2017, about 1,500 tons of certified seeds were produced and distributed to rice farmers and were widely welcomed.

Improvement of purified seeds production industry for the local rice varieties has several benefits for the rice farmers:

• The purity of the certified seeds is more than 98%
• Higher genetic purity,
• Higher germination and vigor
• Lower disease
• Lower damaged or immature seeds
• Higher rice productivity per unit by about 7 to 10%
• The higher percentage of white rice
• lower weed seeds
• lower labor costs for weeding
• Higher price per kilogram of white rice
• Higher-income for rice farmers

The Rice Research Institute of Iran plans to extend the purifying process to all local rice varieties across the country.