Rice is the world’s largest food crop, and its production needs to be doubled by 2050 to cope with population growth and associated demand. In addition to the value of improving yields, quality is also important for breeders and consumers, but it pays less attention in arid regions. During two successive summer growing seasons, the experimental material focused on 34 genotypes developed from different crosses on Fn generation after fixation as well as six of the most recent commercial cultivars used for comparisons. The results showed that a high yield of grain followed by high milling and grain quality characteristics were observed among the 34 genotypes used in this analysis. Highly important and positive correlations between the percentage of hulling and the percentage of milling (0.424) and the yield ability could be accomplished by choosing the number of panicles per plant and the weight of the panicles. Selection criteria for good quality should be met by the percentage of head rice and many mineral elements, particularly zinc and iron. As a consequence, the genotypes M.J 5460S/SK105-1, M.J 5460S/GZ7768-1, M.J 5460S/G177-1, M.J 5460S/SK105-3 and M.J 5460S/SK106-4 had desirable high yield and quality characteristics and could be used as promising accessions to the rice breeding program in arid regions. In addition to commercial genotypes, improved Japonica rice genotypes could be produced in arid conditions for higher yield and quality, leading to an increase in total production, supporting food security and nutrition.

A half diallel cross among seven diverse rice genotypes was carried out in 2019 growing season. Parents and their 21 F1 crosses were evaluated under normal (continuous flooding) and water deficit (irrigation every 12 days) conditions during 2020 growing season, to estimate general (GCA) and specific (SCA) combining ability effects as well as identifying type of gene action controlling the inheritance of the studied traits.Both GCA and SCA mean squares were highly significant for all the studied traits under normal and stress conditions. The non-additive gene action played an important role in the inheritance of all the studied traits, except leaf rolling under stress treatment. The parents Sakha 107, NERICA 9 and N22 were the best general combiners for grain yield/plant. The crosses Sakha 107×Giza 177, Sakha 107×Fuknishiki, NERICA 9×Giza 177, NERICA 9×Akihikari, N22 ×IET1444, N22×Fuknishiki and IET1444 × Giza 177 were identified as promising specific combiners for improving grain yield/plant and one or more of its components under both conditions. The genetic diversity among the seven parental genotypes was assessed using ten Simple Sequence Repeats (SSR) markers. A total of 33 alleles were detected ranging from 2 to 5 with an average of 3.3 alleles per locus. The PIC values ranged from 0.32 to 0.69, with an average of 0.51.Genetic distance ranged from 0.24 to 0.92 with an average of 0.63. High genetic diversity was detected among the tested genotypes at the molecular level, hence these genotypes could be exploited to improve water deficit tolerance in rice breeding program.

This study focused to produce new resistant rice genotypes to major rice diseases and its highly productivity. Rice accessions Giza 177, Sakha 105, Sakha 106 and Gz.7768 were used as male parents and TG-60-6 lines were used as female parent in addition to Fn lines obtained from four crosses. The best genotype has highly productivity and resistance to blast; TG-60-6/Sk.