Approaches towards the development of submergence tolerance in rice (oryza sativa l.) through hybridization

In the present investigation hybridization has been employed for the development of some submergence tolerant high yielding lines. Fifty diverse paddy genotypes were screened for submergence tolerance in low land submerged field condition at Calcutta University Experimental Farm, Baruipur, West Bengal, India in 2010 where water level was more than 50 cm at least for two weeks in the vegetative stage of crop growth. Four submergence tolerant genotypes namely Mahananda, Nagalmuda, Purnendu, Lakshmikajal and one susceptible genotypes namely Sonom were taken for the crossing programme and Mahananda x Nagalmuda, Nagalmuda x Purnendu, Lakshmikajal x Purnendu and Mahananda x Sonom crosses were made in 2011. The parents were selected on the basis of seed yield/plant. Crossing success varied from 6.25-8.33%. The F1 seeds were grown in the kharif season of the 2012 under submergence condition. Some promising plants were selected from F1. They were referred as F2 lines. The F2 lines were sown in the kharif season of 2013 in three replications at submergence prone areas of Calcutta University Experimental Farm, Baruipur, West Bengal, India, in which water level was more than 50 cm at least for 14 days. Total of seven F2 individual were selected from the four different cross. Six individuals produced very high seed yield per plant than their respective control. Two individual in particular derived from the cross of Mahananda and Nagalmuda appear to be most outstanding because of their high seed yield performances. So these selections have an outstanding scope to introduce as submergence tolerant lines in future breeding programme under low land submergence prone field area of West Bengal and Eastern India.