Rice is one of the most widely consumed staple food for more than half of the population in the world. Brown spot caused by Helminthosporium oryzae accounts for 5% yield loss worldwide annually. Adversely affected fields show yield loss as high as 45%. The present study focuses on the several management aspects that are currently used to curb out the disease incidence and measures to be taken in near future for designing effective disease management protocol. The disease is of historic significance and a devasting outbroke in the Bengal Province during 1943 ended as the Great Bengal Famine resulting in starvation and an estimated demise of 2.1 to 3 million people. Brown spot is still devastating on looking the present scenario of damage to rice. Different approaches have been adopted ranging from the use of brown spot resistant rice cultivars, chemical ameliorations and biological control measures for the management of the disease. But, still the disease seems to be chronic and adverse in the current scenario. In this review, we have highlighted epidemiology, control measures practiced and several quantitative and qualitative gaps with respect to disease management, which if rectified, would lead to a strong impact on crop disease control and the sustainable Rice production that are pertinent to the present situation of farmers.

Combining ability analysis of 28 F1’s of a diallel cross (excluding reciprocals) and their parents showed both additive and non-additive components of variation for the inheritance of grain yield/plant and 100 seed weight. For plant height, clusters/plant, pods/ plant and seeds/pod, only the additive component was observed. The parent KU 300 was adjudged as a good general combiner for grain yield/plant, whereas, TU 94-2 and P 165 were adjudged as good general combiners for 100 seed weight. Six cross combinations viz., 2 KU 53/TU 94-2, 99 V 48/KU 300, 99 V 48/P 165, KU 300/LBG 645, PV 94-2/LBG 623 and TU 94-2/P 165 recorded high specific combining ability and they could be exploited for further breeding programmes.

Background: An investigation was performed to identify epistasis, additive, dominance components of genetic variation and yield and yield variability attributing characteristics by triple test cross testing involving three testers (P1, P2 and F1) and ten rice lines.Methods: The study materials consisted of F1 seeds of three crosses, involving six parents namely, ASD16, ADT47, ASD18, CO51, TKM9 and MTU 7029. They are evaluated in randomized complete block design with three replications. Observations were reported for seven traits, namely plant height, number of tillers per plant, number of productive tillers per plant, length of panicle, number of grains per panicle, weight of 1000 grains and yield of grain per plant on five randomly selected plants per replication.Result: The segregating population of three crosses exhibited wide range of variability for most of the traits. The difference between GCV and PCV was low for most of the characters indicated less influence of environment. Among the three crosses ASD18 x CO15 recorded high percent of heritability and genetic advance for grain yield per plant. The estimate of total epistasis revealed that i type of epistasis (additive x additive) was highly significant for number of tillers per plant, number of productive tillers per plant, panicle length and 1000 grain weight. The effect of the additive (D) variance was very important for all the traits except the number of grains per panicle. Across all traits, the degree of dominance (H / D)1/ 2 was less than unity ( less than 1) suggesting, partial of dominance. Since, the pre dominance component of epistasis in autogamous crop is additive x additive (i type), it was suggested that the selection may be post ponded to later generation until all the non-additive components of variance has been mitigated to additive components.

The experimental material used in the present study included 36 genotypes of rice. The material was obtained from the plant breeding farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Annamalainager, during June-Sept., 2004. The experimental field was under saline condition with pH of 7.9 and EC of 4.8 dSm-1. These genotypes were grown with all the recommended cultural practices. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design, consisting of three replications. The crop was spaced at row-to-row 20 cm and plant-to-plant 15 cm. On the basis of heritability estimates and expected genetic advance as percent of mean for different characters studied in the present study, selection criteria based on number of branches/panicle, straw yield/plant, number of fertile florets/plant, total biological yield/plant and grain yield/plant would be useful in further improvement of rice

Background: Twenty-seven landraces of rice (Oryza sativa L.), collected from different parts of Tamil Nadu, were characterised according to the DUS guidelines of the Plant Varieties Protection and Farmers’ Rights Authority, GOI. Methods: Rice accessions were planted with three replications using the randomized block design (RBD) in 2019 at the Plant Breeding Farm, Department of Genetics and plant Breeding, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University. Result: Observations were recorded on 49 different agro-morphological traits, out of 49 descriptors analysed, six were monomorphic, seventeen were dimorphic, thirteen were trimorphic, seven were tetramorphic and spikelet: density pubescence of lemma, 1000 grain weight of fully developed grains and decorticated grain colour showed five expressive states and lemma and palea colour reported six expressive states. Contemporary research work will be advantageous for breeders to choose the right parent for crop improvement and the researchers for genetic diversity among landraces.