Historical rice varieties of the International Rice Research Institute

Dr. Darshan Brar - http://irri.org/darshan-brar - currently head of IRRI's Plant Breeding, Genetics, and Biotechnology Unit and 2007 CGIAR Outstanding Scientist, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXVRlwh8FpE ), describes IRRI's historical rice varieties and their impact.

Note: When Dr. Brar refers to "NARES partners", he means IRRI's partners in the national agricultural and extension systems of developing countries.

Rice crosses made at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI; http://irri.org ) are assigned a number with IR (international rice) as a prefix. Thus, the first cross made in 1962 was designated IR1 and the subsequent crosses were given consecutive numbers. As of the 2009 dry season, 90,756 crosses have been made at IRRI.

IR8 ( http://archive.irri.org/publications/today/pdfs/5-4/34-38.pdf ) was the first variety named by IRRI in 1966. It was selected from the eighth cross made in 1962. It was tested under the experimental designation of IR8-288-3. IR5 selected from the fifth cross was released in 1967. It was tested under the experimental designation of IR5-47-2. Thus, IR5 was released a year after IR8. Subsequent IR varieties were selected from the IR crosses with three or more digits. When experimental line IR532E576 was being considered for release, it was decided to assign a short varietal name rather than the cross number (e.g., 532) from which it was selected. The first proposal was to call it IR10. However, a colleague pointed out that it could be mistaken as IRI zero. It was therefore decided to name it IR20.

It was also decided to give even numbers to subsequent general-purpose varieties and odd numbers to special-purpose varieties. Thus, starting withIR20, up to IR74, even numbers have been assigned consecutively to general-purpose varieties. IR29 and IR65 are glutinous and IR43 and IR45 are recommended for upland conditions.

IR8, IR5, IR20, IR22, IR24, IR26, IR28, IR29, IR30, IR32, and IR34 were named by IRRI with international announcements. Subsequently, these varieties were also approved by the Philippine Seed Board. In 1975, IRRI decided not to name any varieties but to continue to freely share breeding lines with national programs and let the national programs release the IRRIbred lines as varieties if they so chose. The Philippine Seed Board, however, elected to retain the IR prefix for the varieties selected from IRRI-bred materials. Thus, IR36
( http://archive.irri.org/about/images/IR36.pdf ) and subsequent varieties up to IR74 were named by the Philippine Seed Board and IRRI did not have any press releases, in contrast to earlier practice.

The Philippine Rice Research Institute (PhilRice) was established in 1985 and it assumed the responsibility of nationwide testing of improved germplasm and decided to name rice varieties with a prefix of PSBRc (Philippine Seed Board Rice). Thus, all the rice varieties released in the Philippines after 1988 were given a PSBRc designation irrespective of the institution that bred the variety.

For more information, see IR Varieties and Their Impact, by G.S. Khush and P.S. Virk: http://books.google.com/books/irri?id=z-LL_xQZbZYC&printsec=frontcover&am...

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[MrFarmerengineer]

Why is it that high yielding rice varities are produced by private companies? What IRRI and PHILRICE are doing? you have everything for your research.

[irrivideo]

That;s not true--what do you think the video is showing--high yielding rice varieties released by IRRI over the years.

[tassadar01]

@MrFarmerengineer: Please google the net for yield information. PhilRice provides lots of info for example.

[MrFarmerengineer]

please discuss the potentila yield per hectare