The contribution of the International Rice Genebank to varietal improvement and crop productivity in Eastern India
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The contribution of the International Rice Genebank to varietal improvement and crop productivity in Eastern India Donald Villanueva 1 & Melinda Smale 2
&
Nelissa Jamora 3 & Grace Lee Capilit 1 & Ruaraidh Sackville Hamilton 1
Received: 8 February 2020 / Accepted: 22 April 2020 # International Society for Plant Pathology and Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Using survey dataset collected from nearly 9000 farmers along with pedigree and evaluation data, this study measures the contribution of the International Rice Genebank (IRG) to varietal improvement and rice productivity of farmers in Eastern India. We empirically test the relationship of ancestry to productivity changes while controlling for the effects of other farm inputs and environmental factors. Estimated coefficients indicate that a 10% increase in the genetic contribution of IRG accessions to an improved rice variety is associated with a yield increase of 27%. Through pedigree analysis, we also confirm that 45 to 77% of the genetic composition of improved rice varieties is derived from the genes of IRG accessions. Peta, Dee Geo Woo Gen, and Fortuna are the three most popular progenitors with definite IRG contribution. High genealogical diversity likely results from the crossing of germplasm received from multiple countries of origin, which also confer multiple, functional trait combinations in a released variety. Further, our calculations reveal that the average coefficient of parentage of all pairwise combinations among the 10 most adopted rice varieties is 0.0973, indicating a high degree of latent genetic diversity. Findings demonstrate the valuable contribution of the genetic resources conserved and distributed by IRG to the development of improved rice varieties. Keywords Genebank . Genetic resources . Genetic diversity . Improved rice varieties . Productivity
1 Introduction Rice (Oryza sativa) is the most important cereal crop and the staple food of more than half the world’s population. Asia is the largest producing and consuming region (FAO 2014). During the Green Revolution of the 1960s, high-yielding rice varieties were introduced in response to the specter of famine as population densities rose and productivity stagnated. This remarkably successful process created an unintended consequence of crop diversity loss. Traditional varieties and wild species of rice were rapidly replaced by new varieties. Genetic variation from traditional varieties and related wild species is needed in crop improvement to cope with the many biotic and * Melinda Smale [email protected] Nelissa Jamora [email protected] 1
International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Los Baños, Philippines
2
Michigan State University, East Lansing, VA, USA
3
Global Crop Diversity Trust (Crop Trust), Bonn, Germany
abiotic stresses that continually challenge rice production around the world (IRRI 2018). To protect against the loss of rice diversity, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) initiated the collection of rice genetic resources in
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