Rice Breeding

This chapter deals with breeding aspects of one of the most important crops for food security in the world. Initially it shows how diverse rice is with 22 species, different levels of ploidy and six diversity groups. The choice of parents for crossing, when having such wide genetic diversity available, requires careful characterization and evaluation of the germplasm as well as good knowledge and breeding skills to make the right decisions. Rice breeders have been very successful in improving the crop. Some milestones are: the contribution to the green revolution with the semi-dwarf varieties, the new rice plant type, hybrid rice, and the NERICA rice. Even though there was a series of breakthroughs the main breeding goals in most national programs remain similar since a long time ago: increasing grain yield potential, resistance to blast disease, grain quality, and drought tolerance. The main breeding method used to improve rice is the pedigree, but development of hybrids and population improvement were added to the breeder’s portfolio. Breeders have been taking advantage of biotechnology tools to enhance their breeding capacity; however, many national programs are still struggling on how to integrate them into the breeding programs and how to balance the allocation of resources between conventional and modern tools. The chapter closes with information on the rice breeding capacity around the world, showing that rice breeders are widely distributed across all regions and the existing capacity, using the above mentioned information, will still be able to cope with the challenge of making genetic progress for one of the most important food security crops.