Mahisagar (IET-22100): A superior early maturing fine grained rice variety with better quality 

Abstract

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an important staple food of more than half of the world population and ¾th of the Indian population. In India rice is grown in 43 million hectare with 102.80 million tonnes production accounting productivity of 2390 kg/ha. In Gujarat rice is grown on an average about of 0.79 million hectares with a total production of 1.85 million tonnes with productivity of 2349 kg ha^-1. So far in Gujarat, there is an urgent need to enhance the productivity and income of farmers, self sufficiency in rice production. Hence, systematic efforts were made to evaluate superior, early, medium slender kernel type rice variety with better cooking and milling qualities and inbuilt resistance to pests and disease at Main Rice Research Station, Anand Agricultural University, Nawagam. Mahisagar (IET-22100) a rice variety derived from the cross CN-540 × IR-50 and evaluated through pedigree selection method was tested in 20 trials conducted over 5 years at 5 locations of Middle and South Gujarat. On an average, the yield of Mahisagar (4593 kg ha^-1) was exhibited 29.8 per cent and 6.6 per cent higher over the checks GR-4 (3515 kg ha^-1) and GR-12 (4309 kg ha^-1), respectively. The plant type is erect with none-lodging, foliage is green with strong culm, spikelet is awnless and non shattering habit and easy to thresh. The cooking and milling qualities are better than the checks. The milling quality and head rice recovery was found 71.08 per cent and 62.4 per cent, respectively, hence fetches more price in market. The variety is early mature (121 to 125 days) with medium slender kernel type. It is less prone to pests and disease. Considering salient features, Mahisagar is well suited for commercial cultivation under irrigated, transplanted condition ecosystem in Middle and South Gujarat. The performance of Mahisagar variety was praised by farmers and traders and year by year becoming more popular in Gujarat.