New Rice Lines Promise Bigger Harvests with Less Water and Labor
11 October 2025, Philippines: Indian farmers may soon benefit from new rice lines that deliver bigger harvests while requiring less water and labor.
Scientists from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) have developed new rice lines suited for dry direct-seeded rice (DDSR), a method in which seeds are planted directly into dry soil rather than flooded paddy. This approach reduces water use and labor costs, which are major challenges for farmers.
The new lines combine 19 important traits, including anaerobic germination, higher yield, stronger seedlings, resistance to lodging, and protection against pests and diseases such as blast, brown planthopper, and gall midge. These improvements were developed into MTU 1010, one of India’s most widely grown rice varieties. The traits were also added into IR 91648-B-89-B, an elite breeding line that carries a major QTLs for rice grain yield under reproductive-stage drought stress in the background of Swarna, another mega variety popular among Indian farmers.
In field trials, the best performers produced up to 5.7 tons per hectare under DDSR and 5.6 tons under traditional flooded fields. This is about 15 to 16 percent higher than the yield of their parent varieties.
“This is one of the few successful efforts to combine a wide set of DDSR traits into elite rice backgrounds,” said Regional Breeding Lead-South Asia, Dr. Vikas K. Singh. “It shows that popular transplanted varieties can be redesigned for direct-seeded systems without losing yield or grain quality.”
Several of the new lines are already in India’s varietal release pipeline, with two under advanced evaluation trials.
The research was carried out with the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) with support from India’s Department of Biotechnology, with the IRRI-ICAR work plan further supports the work. For further reading, access the paper Enhancing crop resilience through elite pre-breeding lines with key traits for dry direct-seeded rice published via Plant Genome.
Also Read: PM Modi to Launch Two Big Agricultural Initiatives for Farmers on 11th October
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