ABSTRACT
Cereal crops are the main food staples for much of the world, with wheat, rice, and maize the most widely cultivated. Demand for cereal crops will rise because of global population growth, increased demand for cereal-based animal feed, and diversion of crops from foods to biofuels. The yields of cereal crops have already plateaued and most of the productivity gains in the future will have to be achieved through better management of natural resources and crop improvement. Among the various cereal crops rice is the most important food crop of the world. Global rice demand is estimated to rise from 676 million tons in 2013 to 852 million tons in 2035. To meet this challenge rice production on existing land must be increased. Rice has become a model plant for genetics and breeding research. Advances in molecular biology and genomics, proteomics and metabolomics have opened new avenues to apply innovative approaches to rice breeding. A large number of genes/quantitative trait loci (QTLs) for various traits have been tagged with molecular markers to apply molecular-assisted selection (MAS) for trait improvement. Genome sequence data have become an important source for detecting allelic variation. Applying these tools to crop improvement for cereal crops had potential to accelerate genetic progress. All these advances when integrated with conventional breeding will result in designer rice varieties to meet the challenges of rice food security on sustainable basis.
