ABSTRACT

Breeding green super rice (GSR) varieties for sustainable rice cultivation Z. Li, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China; and J. Ali, International Rice Research Institute, The Philippines

1 Introduction

2 The concept of green super rice (GSR)

3 GSR breeding techniques

4 Assessing the impact of GSR varieties

5 Linking genomic tools and information to breeding

6 Future trends and conclusion

7 References

Rice is the major cereal crop in Asia where 90% of the world’s rice is produced and consumed. As a C3 crop, rice productivity has reached a very high level of up to >8 t/ha in the irrigated areas of many countries, resulting primarily from improvement in breeding in previous decades, including the ‘Green Revolution’ since 1950s and the development of hybrid rice technology in China since late 1970s. Rice production and productivity need to keep pace with a growing global population likely to reach 9 billion by 2050 in order to have a hunger-free world and to ensure sustainable production in the face of depleting resources such as land, water and nutrients as well as changing climatic conditions. The greatest challenge we face is how to sustain the current productivity of rice, or further increase it, without undermining the sustainability of rice production for future generations. Achieving this depends primarily on improved rice cultivars and improved rice farming technologies.