THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF RICE BREEDING ACTIVITIES TO RICE
PRODUCTION AND YIELD INCREASES  IN TURKEY

Dr Halil SÜREK
Trakya Agricultural Research Institute, Edirne, Turkey
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            Abstract

            The objectives of rice breeding activities in Turkey were to develop high yielding varieties with short plant height, lodging resistant for mechanical harvest, resistance to disease and pests, cold tolerant at the different growing stages, early or medium mutation (120-140 days), long and translucent grain types, high milled rice yield, low or medium amilose content and low to medium gelatinization temperature, and good response to nitrogen fertilizer. Also maintain of the purity and the seed production of released varieties are  among the breeding goals.

            Rice breeding  program started at Thrace Agricultural Research Institute in Turkey in 1965. Rice breeding activities  have been going on since then. Introduction, crossing, and mutation breeding methods have been used in the breeding activities.

            As a result of breeding programme, 12 rice varieties developed using introduction method, 39 varieties were bred utilising crossing method, and 2 varieties through mutation breeding, totally 53 rice varieties were developed up to now  in Turkey.  The last developed new varieties have high yield potential, short plant height, short-narrow and erect type leaves, and high harvest index. The results of a research done to compare new developed varieties with local and introduced varieties showed that the average rice yield increased annually around 53 kg ha^-1, equivalent to 0,9% per year between 1980 and 2000.

 The most popular local developed rice variety in Turkey is Osmancık-97, it is grown in 73% of total 110 000 ha rice cultivating area in 2013. It has high rice and milled yield potential,  tolerance to cold and blast disease, long and translucent grain, good eating quality for Turkish consumer. Osmancık-97 is well known not only in Turkey, but also in the other countries. It is also cultivated in the neighbouring countries such as Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, and Greece etc. The rice farmers can harvest 10 to 12 ton rice yield using the other new developed high yielding varieties such as Kızıltan, Halilbey, Çakmak, Yatkın, and Sürek M711 etc.  in the last years

            After the successful results of rice breeding activities obtained in the last years, the average rice yield increased to more than 8 ton per ha in 2013 from 4.5 ton per ha in 1980 and all introduced and local old varieties replaced by local developed new varieties at the moment in Turkey.  It made profitable rice farming, therefore, the rice growing area and total rice production increased at the same time. Turkey became 100% self-sufficient in variety usage and providing certified seeds for rice cultivation

.              Key Words: Rice (Oryza sativa L.), rice breeding, rice production, rice variety, rice yield.

 Introduction

Rice is not the staple food in Turkey, however, it is consumed a certain amount per capita, 8 kg per year. Rice growing area was around 44 thousand hectare in 1990’s and it increased to more than 100 thousand hectare, it was around 120 thousand hectare in 2012. On the other hand, rice production was 220 tons, and it increased to more than 800 thousand tons in the last years. It means more than 500 tons increases  (FAOSTAT, 2012). Increases in both cultivating area and production were due to the development of high yielding varieties and improved crop management, specially using laser controlled leveller for levelling the rice fields.

            There are seven geographical regions in Turkey, and rice can be cultivated in all regions in the 35 provinces out of 81. Irrigation water  shortage is a limited factor for expanding the rice growing area. Therefore, the domestic rice production is not enough for the local consumption, and Turkey still has to import rice around 100 thousand tons every year.

            Increasing the rice yield potential has always become the first priority in the rice breeding programmes in Turkey. However, also the grain quality was always taken into consideration to satisfy the Turkish consumer’s   high quality rice demand. Therefore, it was not easy to develop high yielding rice varieties due to negative relationships between rice yield and quality traits.

            The objectives of rice breading activities in Turkey are to develop high yielding varieties with short plant height, lodging resistant for combine harvest, resistant to disease and pests, cold tolerant at the different growing stages, early or medium maturity time (115-140 days), long and translucent grain types, high milled rice yield, low or medium amilose content and low to medium gelatinization temperature, and good response to nitrogen fertilizer. Also maintain of the purity and the seed production of released varieties are  among the breeding goals.

             History of Rice Breeding In Turkey

            Rice breeding program was initiated in 1965 in Turkey. The breeding activities have been going on since then. The breeding studies were only conducted at Thrace Agricultural Research Institute until 1982, this institute concentrated its breeding studies on regional problems. After 1982, a National Rice Research project established and Thrace Agricultural Research Institute became the coordination centre of the project. Therefore, this institute expanded its responsibility to all regions of the country. Also, some other institutes  took part in the breeding programme, and they worked in coordination with Thrace Agricultural Research Institute. However, some of  them stopped rice breeding activities for the different reasons at the moment, only two institutes are dealing with rice breeding activities in Turkey such as Thrace Agricultural Research Institute  and Black Sea Agricultural Research Institute.

            After the rice breeding programme been initiated in 1965, many germplasm have been introduced from Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Hungary, United States, Russia and IRRI etc. Six Italian (Ribe, Rocca, Veneria, CRM-9 ARGO, Titanio, and Sirelle) three Bulgarian (Plovdiv, Rodina, and Ranballi), one Russian (Krasnodarsky-424), two American varieties (Menemen and M-9), and one Aromatic rice variety from IRRI (INGER Material) were released for different regions of Turkey.

            As a result of crossing programme started in 1979 at Thrace Agricultural Research Institute, thirty nine varieties were released. Thirty five of them were developed by Thrace Agricultural Institute, and four of them by Black Sea Agricultural Research Institute. Also, two mutant varieties bred and registered by Thrace Agricultural Research Institute

            Also, a rice seed production program started in early 1980’s, before this program, all certified seeds for rice production were imported from abroad, mainly from Italy. However, after conducting this seed production project, all  certified seeds needed for rice production have been supplied by the local rice seed producer companies for a long time in Turkey.

            Rice Production And Yield Increases In The Last Years

            Rice production increased in the last years in Turkey (Table-1). These increases are due to expanding in growing area, developed high-yielding varieties and improved modern cultivating  practices such as improved soil management (specially using laser controlled leveller for field levelling), better weed control, better irrigation and fertilization management,  and improved harvesting and post harvesting systems.

            In general, the rice production increases between 1980 and 2000 are mainly because of using improved modern growing technique practices. On the contrary,  the  rice production increases after 2000, are due to local improved high-yielding rice varieties and expansion in cultivating area.

            The contribution of local improved high-yielding varieties in rice production increase was higher than expansion in growing area. Because, old local and the introduced varieties replaced by local developed new rice varieties after 2000.

 Table.1 Rice area, production, and average yield in Turkey.

Source: faostat.fao.org.

Table.2  The estimated growing area of rice varieties grown in turkey in last twenty three years.

            Impact Of Breeding On Rice Yield Increase

            Rice yield was 2,5 tons ha^-1 in 1920's and it was stable, averaging around 3,5 tons ha^-1 until 1960. The local old rice varieties used in rice cultivating in that period. After 1960, some rice varieties introduced from the other countries such as Italy and Russia. The local old rice varieties replaced by the introduced varieties. The introduced varieties increased yield from 4,0 tons ha^-1 in 1961-1970 to 5,3 tons ha^-1 in 1996-2000. After 2000, the replacement of the introduced varieties by local developed new high-yielding varieties, rice yield increased from 5,3 tons ha^-1 in 1996-2000 to 8,2 tons in 2013 (table-1).

            The local developed high-yielding varieties started to use in cultivation in 1990's and their production areas increased after 2000 and all introduced rice varieties replaced by them after 2009  (Table-2). Whereas, all rice cultivating areas devoted to the introduced and some local old rice varieties in 1980's (İndelen and Sürek, 1984) (Table-3). 

As a results of a rice breeding programme have intensively been carried out since 1980, today, local developed new varieties and produced certified seeds are being used in all rice area at the moment in Turkey.

 Table. 3 Rice Varieties Cultivated in Turkey in 1981(İndelen and Sürek, 1984).    

            Sürek et al., (2011) compared the local developed new rice varieties with local old and introduced varieties to determine genetic improvement in rice yield between 1980 and 2000 in Turkey. They reported that  53 kg  ha^-1 yield increase per year obtained  with local developed high-yielding varieties between 1980 and 2000, this is equivalent to 0.9%. The similar results reported by Peng et al., (2000) in rice. They determined 75-81kg ha^-1 yield increase per year, and this is equivalent to 1%. This result also  is very similar to previous reports, estimated annual yield gains from plant breeding were 1% for  oat cultivars since 1923 in Minnesota, USA, for malting barley cultivars since 1920 (Wych and Rasmusson, 1983), and 0,5% to 0,6 % for winter wheat (Johnson et al., 1968; Austin et al., 1980).

            Genetic improvement in rice yield potential has resulted from increase in harvest index rather than increase in the biomass in Turkey (Table-4.). The similar results determined by Peng et al., (2000) for rice cultivars, Lawes (1977) for oats, Austin et al., (1980) for winter wheat cultivars and Riggs et al., (1981) for spring barley varieties. Also improved local high-yielding rice varieties were characterized by medium-long, narrow and erect leaves, thick leaf sheaths, and culms, short plant height, lodging resistance, high N responsiveness, and higher filled spikelet per panicle. These results are in accordance with the results reported by Chandler (1969) and Peng et al., (2000).

 Table.4 The average characteristics of old local,  introduced  and new developed varieties tested in 2003, 2004, and 2005  in Turkey (Sürek et al, 2011).

            The contribution of Osmancık-97 variety to rice yield increase.

            The most popular varieties among the new developed high yielding varieties is Osmacık-97 in Turkey. Its development process started making a cross between two Italian varieties, Rocca and Europa in 1982, it was selected as a pure in 1989, and tested in observation nursery in 1990, testing there years in the yield trails, it nominated  for registration in 1993, after testing in national registration trials, it was registered as a commercial variety and named as Osmancık-97 in 1997. Osmancık-97 is an high yielding variety (8 to 10 tons ha^-1) with medium plant height, short, wide and erect leaf, lodging resistant, cold tolerance and moderately tolerance to neck and panicle blast, good response to nitrogen fertilizer, good grain and cooking quality, high head rice yield (65-70%). Its agronomic and quality traits satisfied all the members of rice  sector in Turkey such as rice growers, millers, marketers. and cooking industry. Thus, its growing area increased year by year, it was grown in more than 83% of total rice cultivating area in 2008, after developing the other varieties, its cultivating area decreased to 73% in 2013. However, its popularity still continued. Osmancık-97 is also grown in some neighbouring countries such as Bulgaria, Greece, and Russia etc. Its milled rice became a trade brand as Osmancık Rice in Turkey. It is not  only well known in Turkey, but also it is  well known in some countries exporting rice to Turkey.

Osmancık-97 released in 1997, the average rice yield was around 5 tons ha^-1 , after its registration and spreading, the average rice yield increased year by year, and it is more than 8 tons ha^-1 at the moment (Table-5).

  Table.5 The contribution of Osmancık-97 rice variety to rice production and yield in Turkey.

  Source: faostat.fao.org.

            Yield Gab Between National Average Yield  And Experiment Yield.

            The average rice yield increased in the last yeras in Turkey, however, there is still a gap between experiment yield and national average rice yield. A variety demonstration trial conducted with the last developed rice varieties in four different locations such as Edirne, Balıkesir, Çorum, and Sinop provinces represent  the main rice growing regions in 2013. As it is seen in Table-6, the average experiment yields were higher than the  average rice yields of the provinces and the national average rice yield. The yield difference between the average experiment yield and the national average rice yield was 1.28 tons ha^-1. This shows that it is still possible to increase  more  the rice yield using high-yielding rice varieties in Turkey.

Table.6 The rice yield results of varieties tested in the demonstration trials in 2013.

 (x): National average rice yield in 2013.

            Future Strategies For  Sustainable Rice Production

            Global climate changes effected  rice cultivation in the last years in Turkey. The results of climatic changes created the following problems;

• Due to rainy and cooler spring times, soil preparation and rice planting delayed from May to June.
• Fungal disease problems because of getting rains very frequently during growing seasons specially in June and August.
• Low temperatures effect the crop at the different growing stages such as seedling, booting and ripening.
• Lodging due to early heavy rains before harvesting in late August and September. It causes yield and quality reduction.

5. Red rice problem in monoculture rice areas and Some weeds are getting resistant

     against  conventional herbicide.

            In order to solve the biotic and the abiotic problems, the research efforts will be continued. Also, the input usage, such as herbicide, fungicide, insecticide,  and fertilizer must be reduced. This is very important for reducing production cost, environment concern and sustainability of the rice production.  For these, we did some modifications in our rice breeding objectives; thus we pay more attentions the following matters.

             Earliness: to develop early varieties which are suitable for late planting to extend planting time until mid of June.

              Resistance Breeding: to develop resistant varieties to rice blast disease.

             Short Plant Height: to breed short plant height varieties to reduce the damage of lodging due to heavy rains.

            Herbicide Resistant Varieties: to develop herbicide resistant varieties to control red rice and some other weeds which became resistant to conventional rice herbicides.

            Tolerance to Low Temperatures and Cold: we joined International Temperate Rice Research Consortium to test the reaction of Turkish rice varieties to cold  and to provide cold tolerant genetic material for further studies.

             Conclusion

            The average rice yield increased year by year in the last three decades,  this increase was due to improved cultural practices between 1980 and 2000. It was because of both developed high-yielding  varieties and improved cultural practices after 2000.

            Rice production increased in the last 20 years due to the contribution of both increases in rice land and increases in the average rice yield ha^-1, however, the contribution of increase in rice yield was higher than land incearse. 

            Fifth three kg yield increase per year provided with genetic improvement between 1980 and 2000. It was equivalent to 0,9%. 

            Today, the local developed high-yielding rice  varieties and their local produced certified seeds are used in rice production. Turkey reached the self-sufficiently in variety and rice seed usage.

            Global climate change causes some problems in the last years, however, in order to solve these constrains, new breeding strategies have been defined and they have been put into effect.

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