What is Hybrid rice? Hybrid rice is the commercial rice crop from F1 seeds of cross between two genetically dissimilar parents. Good rice hybrids have potential of yielding 15-20% more than the best inbred variety grown under similar conditions. To exploit the benefits of hybrid rice, farmers have to buy fresh seeds every cropping season

Why Hybrid rice?

We need to go for hybrid rice because yield levels of semi-dwarf varieties of the green revolution era have plateaued. more and more rice to be produced on less land and with less inputs. demand for rice is rapidly increasing with the increase in population, especially in less developed countries. rice hybrids have shown 15-20% higher yield potential than inbred rice varieties under farmers' field conditions. hybrids have shown their ability to perform better under adverse conditions of drought and salinity.

How is Hybrid rice developed?

Rice is a strictly self-pollinated crop. Therefore, for developing commercial rice hybrids, use of a male sterility is essential. Male sterility by genetic or non-genetic means makes the pollen unviable and such rice spike-lets are incapable of setting seeds through selfing. Thus, a male sterile line can be used as female parent of a hybrid. A male sterile line, when grown side with a pollen parent in an isolated plot, can produce a bulk quantity of hybrid seed due to cross pollination with the adjoining fertile pollen parent. The seed set on male sterile plant is the hybrid seed which is used for growing the commercial hybrid crop.