RICE RESEARCH FOR ENHANCING PRODUCTIVITY, PROFITABILITY AND CLIMATE RESILIENCE H Pathak AK Nayak M Jena ON Singh P Samal SG Sharma ICAR-National Rice Research Institute Cuttack 753 006, Odisha, India Citation Pathak H, Nayak AK, Jena M, Singh ON, Samal P and Sharma SG (2018) Rice Research for Enhancing Productivity, Profitability and Climate Resilience. ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Odisha, India, p x+542. Editors H Pathak AK Nayak M Jena ON Singh P Samal SG Sharma Published by Director, ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack 753 006, Odisha, India Design and layout SK Sinha February, 2018 Disclaimer ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Odisha is not liable for any loss arising due to improper interpretation of the scientific information provided in this book. ©All Rights Reserved ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Odisha, India Laser typeset at the ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack 753 006, Odisha, India. Printed by the Print-Tech Offset Pvt. Ltd., Bhubaneswar 751 024, Odisha, India for Director, ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack 753 006. FOREWORD Rice, a major staple crop, feeds more than half of the world population, employs millions of people and has enormous impacts on environment. Globally, the crop is planted in about 160 million hectare with production of 493 million tons of milled rice. In India, rice plays a major role in diet, economy, employment, culture and history. It is the staple food for more than 65% of Indian population contributing about 40% to the total food grain production, thus playing a pivotal role in the food and livelihood security of people. Increase in productivity and profitability of rice on a sustainable basis is possible through novel technological inputs that can address various challenges, including those arising from climate change. Scientific advances in high throughput genotyping-phenotyping and genomics—assisted breeding provide opportunities to explore and embed genes for improving yield and quality. Cutting-edge research enables opportunity to break the yield ceiling and breed new generations of climate-ready rice varieties. Management of soil, nutrient and water has assumed greater significance with the emerging changes in economic and environmental scenario. Improvements in sensors, processing, communications, and nanotechnology offer the potential to increase the use efficiencies of water, fertilizer and plant protection chemicals. Concerted efforts of agricultural scientists and rice farmers supported by Government policies ensured production of 110 million tons of milled rice during 2015-16. This enabled us in meeting the domestic demand and allowed export of rice. However, to ensure food and nutritional security for the ever-growing population in the face of impending adversities due to climate change, the efforts to increase rice production have to be sustained. This book on “Rice Research for Enhancing Productivity, Profitability and Climate Resilience” published by ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Odisha analyzes the major emerging problems, reviews the achievements and identifies research and development needs for sustainable rice farming. The chapters comprehensively cover various aspects of crop improvement, production, protection, physiology, biochemistry, economics and extension of rice technologies. Exclusive information on enhancing productivity, profitability and climate resilience in the context of global as well as Indian scenarios has been captured in the book. I hope that the book will help in understanding the emerging challenges to rice farming. I congratulate the editors and authors for their contributions in bringing out this useful publication that would serve as a reference book on rice farming for researchers, students, policy makers and civil society. ( T. MOHAPATRA ) Dated the 7th February, 2018 New Delhi Preface Rice, the world’s most important food crop, has been grown for more than 6000 years in South Asia. Wild rice, however, grew in the Himalayas 15,000-16,000 years back. Currently, rice is the staple food for about four billion people i.e., half of the humankind on the planet. Rice fields cover around 160 million hectares in a wide range of climatic conditions spanning from 44oN in North Korea to 35oS in Australia. It is cultivated from 6 feet below sea level (such as in Kerala, India) to 2700 feet above sea level in the Himalayas. The crop occupies a significant position in the culture and heritage of many Asian countries. In India, particularly in the eastern states, it is a part of almost every ritual. The crop has been referred in the Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Buddhist and other ancient literature. India has the world’s largest area and is the second highest producer of rice. The crop is grown under varying climatic and soil conditions under diverse ecologies spread over about 43 million hectares. The crop is cultivated round the year in one or the other parts of the country. Since last two years the country has recorded the highest rice production of about 110 million tons. It is the staple food for more than two thirds of Indian population contributing more than 40% to the total food grain production, thereby, occupies a pivotal role in the food and livelihood security of people. During the last decades, significant advancements have been made on developing high yielding and disease-resistant rice varieties and production technologies for different ecologies. The country, so far has released about 1200 varieties. Several viable rice production technologies have also been developed for adoption in the farmers’ fields. Along with increasing the productivity, emphasis has been given on developing varieties with improved stress-tolerance and nutritional quality to ensure nutritional security for the large section of the population depending on rice as staple food. Currently, about 85% of rice area is covered with high-yielding varieties. India’s rice export has also steadily increased with the current export of more than 10 million tons annually making it the leading rice exporter. However, in the backdrop of all these achievements, rice farmers and researchers are facing new challenges of climate change, low water availability, poor soil health, low nutrient use efficiency and increased emergence of insects and diseases. There is now growing concern that non-price factors such as declining scope for further gains from existing modern varieties, deteriorating soil and ground water supplies, and reduced public investment in research have contributed to poor productivity growth in recent years. The challenge is to integrate productivity and profitability improvement of rice while enhancing the climate resilience and quality of the environment on which production depends. The objective of the publication ‘Rice Research for Enhancing Productivity, Profitability and Climate Resilience’, published by ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Odisha is to review the scientific and technical literature available on the developments in rice science and its implications on productivity, profitability and climate resilience; provide science-backed, policy-relevant information for improving rice farming and suggest implementable research and development guidelines to the stakeholders. Thirty-one chapters of the book cover the state-of the-art information in national and international contexts on enhancing productivity, profitability and climate resilience. The chapters capture various aspects of rice viz., (1) improvement i.e., conservation of genetic resources; quality seed production; genetic improvement for enhancing resistance to biotic stresses, input use efficiency, aroma, nutrition and grain quality, and climate resilience; harnessing heterosis; new generation rice for breaking yield ceiling and biotechnological strategies and genomic resources for rice improvement; (2) production i.e., enhancing productivity and resource use efficiency; decreasing energy and water footprints; agro-ecology-based intensification; integrated rice-based farming systems; resource conserving technologies; weed management; efficient use of rice straw; mechanization of rice-based cropping systems and harnessing microbial resources; (3) protection i.e., exploration of new sources of resistance; bio-ecology of rice pest and diseases; bio-intensive approaches and optimization of chemical pesticide-use for management of rice pest; (4) physiology and biochemistry in relation to grain quality and nutritional improvement; multiple abiotic stress tolerance and improvement of photosynthetic efficiency of rice; and (5) socio-economic aspects i.e., yield gap analysis and impact assessment to aid rice research and policies, and developing extension approaches to enhance income of rice farmers. The chapters comprehensively present the technologies for effective management of rice crop in favorable and unfavorable ecologies to make rice farming profitable and sustainable. The authors have also captured the achievements of the ICAR-National Rice Research Institute on rice research and development over the years. In the course of preparing the book, the authors and editors have received help and support from different individuals. We are extremely grateful to each one of them. The editors take this opportunity to express their gratitude to all the authors for developing the chapters in a comprehensive and time-bound manner. We thank Dr. T. Mohapatra, Director General, Indian Council of