DRAFT PROCEEDINGS 55th Annual Rice Research Group Meetings 11 – 13th May, 2020 (Video Conferencing) All India Coordinated Rice Improvement Project (AICRIP) ICAR–Indian Institute of Rice Research (Indian Council of Agricultural Research) Rajendranagar, Hyderabad-500 030, Tel: 91-40-24591218, Fax: 91-40-24591217, email :[email protected];www.icar-iirr.org CONTENTS Session / Item Page Inaugural Session 1 General Sessions 4 Crop Improvement 4 Crop Production 9 Crop Protection 17 Plenary Sessions Agronomy 27 Soil Science 29 Plant Physiology 30 Entomology 31 Plant Pathology 35 Implementation of AICRIP Intranet (www.aicrip-intranet.in) 37 Proceedings of the Seventh Annual Rice Group Meeting for 38 Hill Region Frontline Demonstrations on Rice 41 Issues in Sharing of AICRIP Trials 53 Recommendations/ Conclusions/ ATR/ Action Points 65 Appendices ii to lxxxi ***** Draft Proceedings of 55th Annual Rice Research Group Meeting, 2020 INAUGURAL SESSION Chairman : Dr. Tilak Raj Sharma, DDG(CS),ICAR, New Delhi Chief Guest : Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary, DARE & DG, ICAR, New Delhi Guest of Honour : Dr. Y. P. Singh, ADG (FFC), ICAR, New Delhi Dr. D.K. Yadava, ADG (Seed), ICAR, New Delhi The 55th Annual Rice Group Meeting was organized by the ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad via Video Conferencing from 11-13th May 2020. The inaugural session was chaired by Dr. Tilak Raj Sharma, Deputy Director General, Crop Science, ICAR. Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Secretary, DARE & DG, ICAR was the Chief Guest. Dr. Y.P. Singh, ADG (FFC) and Dr. D.K. Yadava, ADG (Seed), ICAR were the special invitees. Directors, Dr A. K. Singh, IARI, New Delhi, Dr CH Sreenivasa Rao, NAARM, Hyderabad, Dr Himanshu Pathak, NIASM, Baramati; Rice experts, Prof Uday Kumar, Dr BC Viraktamath, Dr YP Sarma, Dr N Shobha Rani, Dr Raveendran; Dr H S Gupta, IIRR-QRT Chairperson and team members; Prof AK Tyagi IIRR-RAC, Chairperson and Team members, AICRIP Co- operators of funded and voluntary centers and staff of private industry participated in the three day 55th ARGM meeting. Dr. Dipankar Maithi, Director, ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack welcomed the participants. Dr. S.R. Voleti, Director, ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad, presented the overview of the achievements of AICIRP program for the year 2019-20. Dr. T.R. Sharma, DDG (CS), ICAR, while welcoming all the participants, mentioned that due to the health crisis posed by Covid-19, the 55th ARGM had to be conducted through video conferencing. He appreciated the efforts of AICRIP for the past 55 years in developing, evaluating and releasing of more than 1360 rice varieties for the cultivation by our farmers. Notwithstanding the increase in rice production, he insisted for best use of our available resources to increase the rice productivity, which was lower than that of China and other countries. He called for focus on targets with specific experiments like direct seeded rice, herbicide tolerant rice and nutrient use rice varieties. Use of land races for different traits like biotic and abiotic stresses and also traits related to biofortification needed special attention. He pointed out that human resource development was very important and the next five years our AICRIP co-operators need to be trained in different areas of crop improvement, including MAS, crop production and crop protection technologies. Three institutes, IIRR, NRRI and IARI should take a lead in organizing appropriate training programmes for the AICRIP co-operators, for which appropriate provisions should be made in the next EFC. In view of the large number of centers, DDG CS also suggested to identify zonal co-ordinators. Dr. Sharma informed that for the first time, very experienced rice experts were invited to participate and evaluate the the progress of work under AICRP and requested for their 1 Draft Proceedings of 55th Annual Rice Research Group Meeting, 2020 continued presence in the ARGM meetings in the next three years for their guidance and advice. In his address, Dr. T. Mohapatra, Secretary, DARE & DG, ICAR, complimented IIRR efforts for conducting first time the Virtual Annual Rice Group meeting and pointed out the importance of digital platform in facilitating the much needed participation of senior officials of ICAR as well as experts in all the AICRP meetings ensuring effective outcome. He highlighted the country’s self-sufficiency in food production which ensured feeding the large population despite the serious COVID-19 situation. The enhanced rice production has also given the confidence to explore diversion of its use for bioethanol production. He complimented the efforts of all the stakeholders for these achievements. During his address he highlighted some of the major points that AICRIP need to be focussed: He felt that there was a need to rationalize our rice production system to give way for diversification of other crops. Production oriented survey could also include information on consumption pattern of rice throughout the country and should help in guiding policy makers in the country.. While giving credit for overall increase in higher production, he expressed concern at the inability to replicate productivity of> 7.0 tons achieved in certain areas across the country. He also mentioned that the rice varieties that have been promoted through IRRI and utilizing the indigenous materials should be brought out explicitly. AICRIP experiments needed to be conducted seriously and sincerely. Solid data based on scientific inputs should be generated by the centres and if any centre (voluntary/funded)was not serious enough in conducting and reporting the experiments/trials very seriously those centres could be either warned or even removed from the AICRIP. Perform or perish should be the mantra for all the AICRIP centres. He suggested that young scientists should be encouraged to work on hybrid ricebreeding aspects. Field oriented crosses and strengthening the breeding program should be given emphasis. A huge amount to the tune of Rs. 75,000 crores was being given as subsidy by the govt on fertilizers, particularly on nitrogenous fertilizers and 37% nitrogen was being utilized for rice crop alone. Hence, Nitrogen Use Efficiency should be one of the key target areas in future. Similarly, water availability had been a major concern for not only rice crop cultivation but also for all other cropping systems. Lot of experiments were conducted on water saving technologies, yet proper recommendation/ package of practices for reduced water consumption of crops are lacking in the country. Hence, systematic, strategic and implementable recommendations on DSR, AWD, Aerobic rice varieties should made available for use by for the farmers. 2 Draft Proceedings of 55th Annual Rice Research Group Meeting, 2020 Dr. Mohapatra also pointed out that there were varieties that were highly photosensitive with > 12% protein content, however showed very low levels of yield, hence deserved special attention. Similarly, there should be some concerted efforts in evolving ASG varieties with potential for export as well as domestic consumption. For promotion of any variety quality analysis should be compulsory from at least three centres. Pre-breeding efforts should be an integral component of all the AICRIPs including rice. He opined that there should be a holistic and innovative IPM protocol by integrating all the components and coordination of IPM work being carried out by different agencies/institutes for different crops. Criteria for promotion/deletion/release of varieties should be based on certain rationality and logistic but not necessarily based on only rule book. This should be done without any bias. Package of practices of a newly released/identified variety should also be released and certificate of recommendations of plant protection and resource management technologies should be issued to the contributors. We must focus in developing and promoting our own varieties by making large number of crosses regularly with innovation and open mind. It is also suggested to include the action taken report while presenting the results for continuity of the program and implementation of the recommendations and decisions taken during the workshop. Finally he complemented all the stakeholders of AICRIP for tremendous achievements over the past 55 years and expected to change the mode of functioning so as to meet the challenges of rice production system in the country. Dr L.V. Subba Rao, Principal Scientist, Plant Breeding, IIRR, thanked all the dignitaries and AICRIP co-operators for their participation and contribution to the success of the AICRIP. This was followed by the afternoon session in which for the first time AICRIP funded centres presented the achievements. The following 17 centres out of 44 funded centers presented results representing all the 7 zones. Chatha, Kanpur, Kota, Kaul, Ludhiana, Pantnagar, Bankura, Chinsurah, Titabar, Masodha, Raipur, Nawagam, Coimbatore, Mandya, Pattambi, ARI Rajendranagar, Maruteru. Due to paucity of time, the remaining centres only participated in the meeting and their results were covered in the respective PI presentations. 3 Draft Proceedings of 55th Annual Rice Research Group Meeting, 2020 GENERAL SESSION CROP IMPROVEMENT Chairman: Dr T.R. Sharma. DDG (CS), ICAR Co-Chairman: Dr A.K. Singh, Director, IARI Principal Investigator: Dr L.V. Subba Rao Dr. A.S. Hari Prasad Progress report of AICRIP 2019 was presented by Dr LV Subba Rao, PI (AICRIP- Varietal Improvement) and Head (Plant Breeding) in the technical session II held on 12th May, 2020 under the chairmanship of Dr. T.R. Sharma, DDG (CS) and Co-Chaired by Dr. A.K. Singh, Director, ICAR-IARI. The Chairman welcomed all the delegates for the 1st ever virtual workshop of Rice Program. Results of 46 trials (Rainfed (upland/lowland), irrigated, Basmati, NIL, saline/alkaline, biofortification, aerobic, low phosphorus trials) with 1319 test entries in 28 states and 2 UTs of 7 zones in 671 trial sites conducted during kharif 2019. He informed that about 30% of entries were promoted in the respective duration/ group trials after assessing their superior performance over the best check.