Genetic resources

HUR 4-3: a new aromatic rice variety released for

irrigated areas of Uttar Pradesh, India
H.K. Jaiswal and R.P.Singh, Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, Institute of
Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221005, India
E-mail: jaiswal_hemant@rediffmail.com

Aromatic rice constitutes a small, special group of rice that is considered to be

the best in grain quality characteristics. This rice has long been popular in the
Orient, and is now gaining popularity in the Middle East, Europe, and the
United States. Although aromatic rice that is popular in the world market is long-
grain Basmati type, a majority of the Indian indigenous aromatic rice is small- to
medium-grain rice. A large number of landraces of this rice are found in the
Himalayan Tarai region of the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar of India,
indicating that this region is probably a center of origin of aromatic rice. Quality
rice is characterized not only by aroma but also by several other traits such as
grain length and width, kernel elongation after cooking, elongation ratio,
amylose content, and gelatinization temperature. Most of the traditional aromatic
rice varieties are tall, low yielding, and late maturing. In spite of the high value
and demand for aromatic rice, not much progress in developing aromatic
varieties has been achieved. This is partly because of the incompatibility of
aromatic varieties with improved indicas, resulting in high infertility in crosses.
Mutation breeding can be effectively used in bringing about desired
improvement of specific traits in these indigenous aromatic rice varieties, making
them competitive with current high-yielding varieties.
Lanjhi, an aromatic landrace from Jhansi Division (Bundelkhand region)
of Uttar Pradesh, has several acceptable agronomic traits: medium slender
aromatic grains, moderately high yield (3.2 t/ha), and tolerance for blast and
major insect pests such as stem borers and leaffolders. Its unacceptable feature is
its plant height (150–170 cm), which makes it highly susceptible to lodging.
Therefore, through induced mutagenesis, an attempt was made to recover
semidwarf mutants with high yield while retaining the quality traits of Lanjhi.
One thousand mature seeds (M0) of Lanjhi were presoaked in distilled
water for 12 hours and treated with 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5% aqueous solution of
EMS for 6 hours, for each treatment. The M1 seeds were grown in the field at the

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Agricultural Research Farm, B.H.U. Varanasi, during the 1999 wet season (WS)
(Jun-Dec). During harvest, care was taken to collect panicles only from the main
tiller. The seeds were bulked to grow the M2 (10,000 plants) during the 2000 WS.
Seeds from 127 selected individual plants were advanced to the M4 generation.
Nine mutants were finally selected and grown in 3 × 5-m plots with three
replications to evaluate the stability of the mutant phenotype and other
agronomic traits in the M5 generation during the 2003 WS. The parent variety
(Lanjhi) and HUBR 2-1, a variety released for U.P. with high yield and good
cooking quality, were used as checks. Four mutants (HUR 4-3, HUR 5-7, HUR 7-
5, and HUR 9-3) with plant height ranging from 90 to 110 cm and days to 50%
flowering ranging from 105 to 110 were recovered (Table 1). Compared with
Lanjhi, HUR 4-3 and HUR 7-5 did not show any significant difference in grain
quality and aroma. Interestingly, HUR 4-3 had a substantially higher yield than
the parental line Lanjhi, which could be attributed to its semidwarf plant stature
and higher spikelet fertility. It was most promising with its improved plant type
and yield advantage over the parent.
Culture HUR 4-3 was entered in the State Varietal Trials of Uttar Pradesh
in 2004 and tested for 3 consecutive years (Table 2). HUR 4-3 recorded an
increase of 25% over check variety Pusa Basmati 1. Thirteen grain quality
characteristics of HUR 4-3 were assessed using standard procedures and
compared with the popular Basmati check varieties Pusa Basmati 1 and Taraori
Basmati (Table 3). The State Varietal Release Committee of UP released HUR 4-3
(IET 18911) in February 2008 for cultivation in irrigated areas of eastern and
western UP.

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Table 1. Performance of Lanjhi and M5 mutants at the Agricultural Research Farm, B.H.U. Varanasi, 2003 (WS).
Parent/ Plant Days to Spikelet fertility Yield
mutant/check height 50% (%) (t/ha)
(cm) flowering
Lanjhi 159 103 74.5 3.3
HUBR 2-1 (check) 101 105 80.2 3.8
HUR 4-3 100 105 86.5 4.6
HUR 5-7 102 106 81.3 4.1
HUR 7-5 110 110 84.3 4.3
HUR 9-3 90 106 80.7 3.8
HUR 4-7 115 111 78.9 3.8
HUR 3-5 111 118 86.0 3.6
HUR 21-7 118 120 83.2 4.0
HUR 53-1 96 111 85.1 3.7
LSD (0.05) 10.4 7.5 3.8 0.3

Table 2. Comparative yield performance (t/ha) of HUR 4-3 in State Varietal Trials at the Regional Agriculture Testing and
Demonstration Stations (RATDS), 2004-06 wet seasons.
Entry Eastern region Western region Central region Bundelkhand State
region mean
Varanasi Azamgarh Barabanki Meerut Mathura Barielly Hardoi Etawah Jhansi
HUR 4-3 4.9 3.8 4.8 4.4 4.7 3.9 4.0 3.5 1.6 4.0
NDR 6168 3.8 3.8 3.7 4.2 4.5 3.1 3.2 3.6 1.1 3.4
CSAR 839-3 3.7 3.9 4.2 4.7 – 3.0 3.5 3.8 1.9 3.6
MUV 13 2.9 2.9 4.3 4.7 4.2 3.3 3.2 2.9 1.6 3.3
Pusa Basmati-1 3.2 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.2 3.0 3.1 3.0 1.5 3.2
(check)
LSD (0.05) 0.85 0.54 0.57 0.34 0.34 0.42 0.41 0.43 0.32 0.35

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Table 3. Grain quality characters of HUR 4-3 and check varieties Pusa Basmati 1 and Taraori Basmati.
Quality traits HUR 4-3 Pusa Basmati 1 Taraori Basmati

Milling (%) 70.7 68.8 68.8

Head rice recovery (%) 63.2 48.6 51.5
Kernel length (mm) 6.64 7.20 7.31
Kernel breadth (mm) 1.59 1.77 1.81
Length/breadth ratio 4.18 4.07 4.03
Kernel length after cooking (mm) 13.3 14.2 14.0
Elongation ratio 2.01 1.97 1.91
Alkali digestion 6.0 7.0 5.0
Amylose content 23.6 24.3 23.1
Gel consistency (mm) 61.0 63.0 75.0
Scent Lightly scented Scented Scented
Grain chalkiness 1 1 0
Grain type Long slender Long slender Long slender

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