Genetic Improvement of Rice for Salt Tolerance

This edited book is a compilation of tangible research findings and actual experiences on various salt tolerant rice breeding programmes, that have been successfully practiced and continuing to do so by research centres in South East Asia, with major emphasis in India, Bangladesh and Philippines. Rice being one of the most important staple crops of the world, its production and productivity have to be kept on increasing so as to feed the burgeoning population. This is a very challenging task in the midst of shrinking resource base and arable lands in the face of climate change. Salt stress is the second major abiotic stress, next only to drought, which greatly affects rice production. To overcome this problem, development of improved salt tolerant rice cultivars coupled with appropriate package of practices, an ecologically sound and socially acceptable strategy should be developed which is well within the reach of marginal farmers. With rapid advances in molecular biology, mechanisms underlying the complexity of the trait are better understood now than before. Selection of appropriate parents, desired mapping populations, precise phenotyping are the key components to underpin the mapping and utilization of reliable QTLs. Understanding genetics of salt tolerance, identifying the robust molecular markers and targeted utilization of available molecular markers form the sound basis to develop the commercial products with more precision and speed. This book covers entire range of topics: starting from biophysical characterization of salt stressed areas in different rice ecologies, conventional and molecular breeding approaches for mapping salt tolerance and subsequent development of improved rice varieties for commercial cultivation and their societal impacts. This book is of interest to scientists, faculty, policy makers and administrators. It also serves as a resource guide to graduate students of agriculture particularly plant breeding, plant physiology, molecularbiology and soil science.

Dr. RK Singh, is Program Leader of Crop Diversification and Genetics" section at The International Centre for Biosaline Agriculture (ICBA) based at Dubai, UAE. He is leading research solutions for marginal environments in Sub-saharan Africa, Central Asia and Middle east and North Africa (MENA) region. Before joining ICBA, Dr Singh worked as Senior rice breeder at IRRI from 2005 to lead the IRRI program on salinity breeding and problem soils. He served as regional plant breeding coordinator for eastern and southern Africa from 2009-2012 where he led the rice-based agriculture research in eastern and southern Africa. From 2012 to 2018, he led the breeding work on rainfed lowlands for SE Asia and rice breeding for problem soils from IRRI headquarters at Los Banos in Philippines. He has guided 14 PDF, 7 PhD, 8 MS and numerous OJT and interns; and trained numerous researchers across the globe. He is an Adjunct Professor of plant breeding and genetics at the University of the Philippines at Los Banos. 

Dr Singh has been conferred with many national and international honours and awards. Few of them are “Fellow of the most prestigious Agricultural Academy of India, NAAS (National Academy of Agricultural Sciences); Fellow of most prestigious Mohd. Bin Rashid Academy of Sciences (MBRAS) of UAE, Fellow of Indian Society of Coastal Agricultural Research; Fellow of Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding; National recognition and honour for outstanding service to the nation by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), DARE, Government of India for the development of Basmati CSR30 rice variety. Dr. Singh has been instrumental for the development and commercial release of more than 35 rice varieties globally in south and south east Asia (India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam, Indonesia and Philippines), and eastern Africa (Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya). He has published more than 115 research articles in refereed journals and also published more than 20 books and book chapters. He has extensive international experience and visited more than 60 countries.

Professor Dr. M. Prakash born in 1966, obtained his B. Sc (Ag.) and M. Sc (Ag.) from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India in 1988 and 1990 respectively. He did his Ph. D. from Annamalai University. He has served as the Head of the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding from 2006 to 2012 and presently serving as the Controller of Examinations. He has put in 30 years of total teaching, research and extension service and 16 years of service in the cadre of Professor.

He has guided 8 Ph.D. scholars and 25 PG Scholars. His credentials include publication of more than 150 refereed research papers, ten books, two seminar proceedings and 15 book chapters including one book chapter published in SESAME by globally reputed CRC Press. He organized 3 International and 15 National Seminars/Conferences/Workshops, 1 Refresher course andcompleted five research projects. He has earned the status of Departmental Research Support with Special Assistance Programme of University Grants Commission (UGC-SAP- DRS) to the Department with financial assistance of Rs. 50 lakhs at Phase I (2009-2014) and Rs. 1.025 Crore at phase II (2015-2020) level as Programme Coordinator.

He was awarded with National Merit Scholarship, Government of India during 1981-1988, ICAR Junior Fellowship in Plant Physiology during 1988-1990, Crop Research Award in 2004, Best Researcher Award in Annamalai University in 2010, J J Chinoy Gold Medal Award of Indian Society of Plant Physiology in 2017, Dr. B.P. Pal Memorial NABS Best Scientist Award of National Academy of Biological Sciences, Chennai in 2017, Best Researcher (Publication) Prize of Annamalai University in 2016-2017, 2018-2019 and 2021. His academic excellence was well recognised by the award of Fellowships like FELLOW of Indian Society of Plant Physiology, New Delhi in 2015 (FISPP) and FELLOW of National Academy of Biological Sciences, Chennai, 2015 (FNABS) and FELLOW of National Environmental Science Academy, New Delhi in 2016.

Dr. Raj Kumar Gautam presently working as Principal Scientist & Head, Division of Germplasm Evaluation at ICAR-NBPGR, New Delhi has earlier served as Head, Division of Crop Improvement & Protection at ICAR-CIARI, Port Blair, A&N Islands. He has contributed to the development of 14 high yielding, bacterial blight and salt tolerant rice varieties for different states in India. Based on amount of seed distribution, these varieties are estimated to have occupied more than 16 lakh ha area thus causing significant socio-economic impacts in different states.  A total of 12 unique germplasm materials were registered with ICAR-NBPGR and PPVFRA New Delhi. Besides his peer reviewed research publications in more than 70 journals, significant contributions were made for the development, documentation and popularization of agro-technologies and innovations including farmers’ participatory variety selection and seed production (more than 650 quintal quality seed produced and distributed).

Dr. S. L. Krishnamurthy is senior scientist in plant breeding. He started his career as a scientist at the ICAR Central Soil Salinity Research Institute (the Indian Council of Agricultural Research) in Karnal, India. He had risen through the ranks to become a senior scientist. He leads research in salt tolerance in rice at ICAR CSSRI Karnal.

In his past roles, Dr. S. L. Krishnamurthy led the teams, which developed and released ten salt-tolerant rice varieties in India. He developed five rice genetic stocks for salt tolerance. He holds a Ph.D. in Genetics and Plant Breeding from the University of Agricultural Sciences Bengaluru (UAS B), India. He has published more than 80 research papers in international peer-reviewed journals and over 12 book chapters.

Dr. S. Thirumeni, after graduating from Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur, completed his post-graduation and doctoral programmes in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore.  Apart from teaching courses in Genetics and Plant Breeding to the students of Agriculture for over 30 years, took keen interest in understanding the genetics of salt and submergence tolerance of rice and consequently breeding tolerant rice varieties. He has identified the gene action and interaction ofsalt tolerance, employing classical genetic tools in rice, cotton, finger millet and black gram. In rice, using molecular tools and genetic resources (germplasm and mapping populations), mapped the chromosomal regions harbouring salt tolerance genes through Genome Wide Association Studies and QTL analysis.