Abstract

Department of Rice, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore developed CO(R) 50 medium duration rice variety, which was found promising for cultivation in irrigated zones of Southern states of India. CO(R) 50 rice variety has new plant type characters for high yield performance which can give mean grain yield of 6338 kg/ha. It is a derivative of the cross between CO 43 and ADT 38 which matures in 130-135 days. The variety was tested in station trial for four years (2001-2004), Multi Location Trial for two years (2005-06 and 2006-07), Adaptive Research Trial (2006-07) and in AICRIP trial for three years (2005-07). Based on the consistent performance in AICRIP trial, the variety was released by Central Variety Release committee during 2009. Front line demonstrations were conducted for the past three years (2011-14) which showed that varietyhas high yield potential in Tamil Nadu. CO (R) 50 variety is moderately resistant to stem borer, leaf folder and gall midge pests and blast, sheath blight, brown spot, rice tungro disease (RTD) and bacterial leaf blight (BLB) diseases. It produces medium slender white rice with intermediate amylose (24.0%) content, soft gel consistency and moderate gelatinization temperature. Variety is able to give good quality cooked rice and also found suitable for making famous south Indian breakfast ‘idly’.

Keywords: CO(R) 50, Medium duration rice variety, New plant type