Evaluation of short duration rice (Oryza sativa) varieties as a strategy to cope with climate change

Abstract

Ten elite short duration rice varieties were introduced from Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Bangladesh and evaluated at the Renewable Natural Resources Research and Development Centre – Bhur, in Sarpang in 2014. The varieties were tested both as the spring and main season crops to assess their potential for rice double cropping and crop intensification program of theDepartment of Agriculture. Rice varieties with short maturity duration are needed to adapt to the changing climate and altered growing conditions. The result from the spring crop showed that almost all the introduced varieties were not better than the local check (IR20913) in terms of earliness. Their days to flowering (DTF) ranged from 110 days (d) to 131 days except for one variety which had 103 days. IR 20913 flowered in 110 day and most of the varieties took about 2 weeks or longer to flower. However, the same varieties tested in the main season flowered between 81 d to 99 d which is comparable to the local check (Bhur Kambja 1) with 90 d. As the spring crop, these varieties were not better than the local checks in terms of their earliness. But the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) varieties like BRRI dhan26, 28, 56 and 58 were identified to be suitable for other agronomic traits such as crop stand, plant height and yield. These varieties produced grain yield of over 2 t/ha. Thus, four of the elite varieties have been selected and will be further evaluated prior to their release as climate resilient varieties.