ICAR Goa registers Korgut, a traditional rice landrace from Goa
ICAR Goa registers Korgut, a traditional rice landrace from Goa, as Unique Germplasm, for tolerance to salinity stress at seedling stage, with National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi.
Korgut, a traditional rice landrace from the State of Goa, has been registered as unique germplasm, for ‘tolerance to salinity stress at seedling stage’, with the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (NBPGR), New Delhi. Plant Germplasm Registration Committee of Indian Council of Agricultural Research has approved Korgut for registration and assigned with the national identity number INGR14055. Dr. Manohara KK, Scientist in genetics & plant breeding, has collected Korgut from khazan (salt affected soils) areas of Goa and carried out systematic evaluation under natural coastal salinity conditions at Chorao Island (North Goa) in farmers’ field for past four years. Study on yield and its contributing characters over the years proved its adaptability to coastal saline areas. Further, phenotyping for salt stress tolerance at seedling stage under hydroponics culture with EC = 12 dSm-1, at Central Rice Research Institute, confirmed its tolerance (with SES score 3) to salinity stress at seedling stage. The tolerance of Korgut was associated with low ratio of Na+-K+ (0.18) in shoot as compared to susceptible check variety IR-29 (0.68). Now, upon registration, Korgut can be used as genetic stock in future breeding programmes aiming at the development of high yielding salt tolerant rice varieties for coastal saline areas.