Production Of Hybrid Rice Using Environment Sensitive Genic Male Sterile (Egms) And Basmati Rice Lines

ABSTRACT

Rice is the third major food crop in Kenya and, its production is estimated at 129,000 tons which is below the annual national demand of 548,000 tons. Kenya rice yields per hectare are very low compared to major producers like China. Basmati (B) varieties, B370 and B217, are preferred by most rice consumers and are cultivated as a cash crop by 98.8% of Mwea rice farmers. This is because they have strong aroma. Due to the demand, basmati rice command high premium prices locally and internationally. Unfortunately, low yielding traits is a phenomenon shown by all basmati cultivars. To improve on yield, this study exploited hybrid rice technology using greenhouse structure to emasculate medium height, environmental sensitive genic male sterility (EGMS) lines for crossing with viable pollen from basmati lines for hybrid basmati rice production. EGMS lines namely, photoperiod sensitive genic male sterile (PGMS) and thermosensitive genic male sterility (TGMS) were crossed with local basmati varieties. Marker assisted selection (MAS) was used to identify F1 hybrids from various crosses. Results indicated that thermo emasculation at an average temperature of ≥34.5oC, using greenhouse (GH) structure, is possible for the temperate varieties PGMS which are emasculated by photo light (≥13hours) and also TGMS variety emasculated by temperature (≥33oC) but suffers significantly from temperature fluctuation. Microscopic observation of pollen viability of PGMS/TGMS lines at (p