New Salt Tolerant Rice Variety: Hope for the Coastal Farmers In Bangladesh 1 million hectare of rice lands are currently affected by salinity and further degradation will have detrimental consequences on food security due to limited land resources. About 53% of the coastal areas are affected by salinity. Agricultural land use in these areas is very poor, which is much lower than country’s average cropping intensity. Salinity causes unfavorable environment and hydrological situation that restrict the normal crop production throughout the year. The dominant crop grown in the saline areas is local transplanted Aman (wet season) rice crop with low yields. It has become imperative to explore the possibilities of increasing potential of these (saline) lands for increased production of crops. Thus, it is necessary to have an appraisal of the present state of land areas affected by salinity. Use of salt-tolerant varieties is considered the most economical and most effective way of increasing crop production on saline soils. Attempts to improve the salt tolerance of crops through conventional breeding programmes have met with very limited success; due to the complexity of the trait- salt tolerance is complex genetically and physiologically. Salt tolerance is a quantitative trait, which is affected by environmental variation. The classical method cannot detect a single gene locus associated with quantitative traits, their locations on chromosomes, or their relationship with other genes. Thus, selection for salinity tolerant genotypes of rice based on phenotypic merits alone is less reliable and will delay progress in breeding. Marker technology can facilitate and speed the development of salt tolerant varieties. Biotechnology along with the use of nuclear techniques will provide a greater opportunity to the scientists of BINA for the development of cost-effective and eco-friendly technology for improving salt tolerant rice variety with acceptable yield and increasing crop production in the country. Against the backdrop, PIU-BARC finance a subproject titled “Development of salt tolerant rice varieties through induced mutation and marker-assisted selection” with the goal to develop salt tolerant rice varieties through induced mutation and biotechnological approach (marker-assisted selection) as well to enhance rice production for food security and improve livelihood of farm community.
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 12:47:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015