Abstract

Transformative Rice Breeding:Next Gen Integrated Breeding Initiative

Sanjay K Katiyar, Leader, Bioseed Research India

Rice is a principle staple crop and producing sufficient rice to feed the rising global population is a challenge, especially under the threat of unpredictable consequences of climate change. Future Agri-food systems require more resilient, nutritious and productive rice varieties that are developed faster through speed breeding. Emerging technologies and advances in genomics, breeding and informatics offer huge opportunities. However, the pace of integrating these technologies tomodernizethe breeding programs in the developing world is extremely slow andcomplex.Transformative Rice Breeding (TRB) is a “Next Gen Integrated Breeding Initiative”for modernizing rice breeding programs in Asia and Africa.

TRB makes rice breeding more efficient by changing the breeding operations and re-structuringoverall breeding pipeline. It includes understanding marker trends & client’s need to design varietal architecture, a modern “population breeding” strategy, to improve the phenotypic performance of an inter-mating population, use of high throughput SNPs based MAS, combined with unprecedented selection power of genomics, innovative technologies toaccelerate breeding cycles, robust multi-environment testing &evaluation systemsfor deliveringnew cultivars with yield stability and environmental resilience. Transformative Rice Breeding aims to increase the rate of genetic gains, speed up breeding and dramatically increase the efficiency of breeding operations.