The Improvement of Rice Agronomic Traits Through Hybrid Breeding

Rice breeding is an agricultural practice aimed at developing new rice varieties with improved traits. It could be the solution for the Malaysian rice production that has been suffering from various challenges and yield reduction. This study aimed to improve rice agronomic traits through the hybridization breeding technique. Three varieties were used in this study: PB317 (male/restorer), PB202s, and PB204s (female). The commercial variety, MR297, was used as a control. The Thermosensitive Genic Male Sterility (TGMS) for male sterility technique was used on female parents to prevent self-pollination. The progenies were harvested between 119 and 123 days after sowing. The crossbreeding technique used has produced an average of 378 tillers per crossing. Several morphological parameters have been collected for plant performance comparison. The results indicated that hybrid progeny (PB317 x PF204s) has the highest production with an average of 12.19 mt/ha, followed by PB317 x PF202s (10.01 mt/ha) and MR297 (7.41 mt/ha). The hybrid progenies have significantly higher yield with better morphological characteristics than both parents. The hybrid progenies have shown that the yield can be increased up to seven tonnes compared to the inbred varieties and proven to improve agronomic traits and produce high-performance rice varieties.