From a ship-to-mouth existence at the time of its Independence, India became a food sufficient country due to the research and policy interventions during the green revolution era and in the last six decades. The country witnessed a phenomenal increase in the production and productivity of rice and wheat and presently the country is exporting significant quantities of rice. However, there are multiple challenges in ensuring food and nutritional security through rice in the coming decades including a rapidly changing climate and a plateauing of rice yields has been witnessed in the last two decades in many rice growing countries across the world including India. It is therefore imperative to enhance rice productivity and production through application of modern tools of science. This review traces the developments related to rice research and yield improvement over the last six decades and discusses about the conventional and modern approaches to enhance grain yield in rice. These approaches include pre-breeding, wide-hybridization, new plant type/ideotype breeding, heterosis breeding, marker and genomics-assisted breeding, haplotype-based breeding, transgenic breeding and genome editing.

DRR Dhan 53 was released for commercial cultivation in Samba Mahsuri/Improved Samba Mahsuri growing regions of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar, Gujarat and Maharashtra by Central Sub-committee on Crop Standards, Notification and Release of Varieties in 2020. It is a cross between Improved Samba Mahsuri*3/PAU 3554. DRR Dhan 53 (IET 27294) is a marker assisted selection (MAS) derived product in the genetic background of Improved Samba Mahsuri. DRR Dhan 53 is a durable bacterial blight resistant, high-yielding, fine-grain type rice variety having the major bacterial blight resistance genes, Xa21+xa13+xa5+Xa38 with seed to seed maturity of 130-135 days and average yield of 5.5- 6 t/ ha.

An experiment was carried out during Rabi 2021-22 at the experimental plot of ICAR-Indian Institute of Rice Research, Hyderabad. Two diverse elite indica lines of rice (Jaya and isogenic line of MTU1010) were used to generate the F2 population to study genetic variability parameters, heritability, and expected genetic advance under selection. Higher GCV, PCV, and heritability coupled with high genetic advance were estimated for the number of productive tillers, panicle weight, number of filled grains, and single plant yield, which indicated that heritability of these traits was under the control of additive gene action. Stringent selection for such traits will be rewarding.

One hundred and two MAGIC indica plus lines, one hundred and four rice accessions, along with four standard checks of rice (Oryza sativa L.) were evaluated during Kharif 2017 to study the nature and extent of correlation among yield and yield attributing characters viz., days to 50 per cent flowering, plant height, number of productive tillers per plant, panicle length, number of filled grains per panicle, number of grains per panicle, spikelet fertility, thousand-grain weight, grain yield per plant. The results revealed that grain yield plant per plant to be positively and significantly associated with with number of filled grains per panicle (rp= 0.657**; rg= 0.665), spikelet fertility (rp= 0.301**; rg= 0.321), number of productive tillers per hill (rp= 0.153**; rg= 0.068), panicle length (rp= 0.133**, rg= 0.114) indicating importance of these traits as selection criteria in yield improvement programmes.