Super hybrid rice in China and India: current status and future prospects.

Rice is a staple food for over half of the world's population and has the second largest cereal production after maize. Rice yield has experienced many fold jumps since the 1950s. This happened primarily as the result of genetic improvement and increasing harvest index by reducing plant height using the semi-dwarf genes and utilization of heterosis by producing hybrids. Hybrid rice technology is one of the strongest tools to break the yield barrier. To make hybrid rice technology practically feasible it needs strong system of hybrid seed production at commercial rate. Unlike maize, rice is a self-pollinated crop and needs special techniques, like utilization of male sterility system for hybrid seed production. The first hybrid rice variety for commercial cultivation was released by China in 1976. Seeing the China’s success many countries started the hybrid rice breeding programme. India also started this programme in 1989. In about two decades of efforts India released 65 hybrid rice varieties till 2013. Though, China is cultivating about 50% of its rice area under hybrid rice varieties, India is still struggling to enhance its acreage under hybrid rice from 4% to more. Because of complicated seed production system, higher seed cost and less preferred qualities of hybrid varieties it could not cover more area under cultivation in India. In 1998, China started work for developing super hybrid rice by combining an ideotype approach with the use of inter-sub specific heterosis. Till 2011, the Ministry of Agriculture, China approved 56 hybrid cultivars with great yield potential as super hybrid rice. Hence, India and China still have to work hard for developing high yielding super hybrids coupled with good cooking qualities and resistance/tolerance to major biotic and abiotic stresses. Suitable technology should also be developed to make hybrid seed production easier and cheaper. © 2015 Friends Science Publishers