With the ever-increasing global demand for high quality rice in both local production regions and with Western consumers, we have a strong desire to understand better the importance of the different traits that make up the quality of the rice grain and obtain a full picture of rice quality demographics. Rice is by no means a ‘one size fits all’ crop. Regional preferences are not only striking, they drive the market and hence are of major economic importance in any rice breeding / improvement strategy. In this analysis, we have engaged local experts across the world to perform a full assessment of all the major rice quality trait characteristics and importantly, to determine how these are combined in the most preferred varieties for each of their regions. Physical as well as biochemical characteristics have been monitored and this has resulted in the identification of no less than 18 quality trait combinations. This complexity immediately reveals the extent of the specificity of consumer preference. Nevertheless, further assessment of these combinations at the variety level reveals that several groups still comprise varieties which consumers can readily identify as being different. This emphasises the shortcomings in the current tools we have available to assess rice quality and raises the issue of how we might correct for this in the future. Only with additional tools and research will we be able to define directed strategies for rice breeding which are able to combine important agronomic features with the demands of local consumers for specific quality attributes and hence, design new, improved crop varieties which will be awarded success in the global market.

Type II diabetes is a major chronic disease. In developing countries, the prevalence of type II diabetes is increasing enormously. Much research indicates that choice of carbohydrates, particularly those with low glycaemic index (GI) is able to assist in the management or prevention of type II diabetes. Most developing countries consume rice as the staple. The objectives of this study were to determine the variability in the GI of popular improved and traditional varieties of rice and to find the genetic basis of GI. A method to predict GI using an in vitro system was compared to the in vivo system using a range of rice varieties differing in GI. Large variability in GI, ranging from low to high GI, was found using a set of 235 varieties. The major gene that associated with GI in the 235 varieties was the Waxy gene. This paper reports the first large-scale phenotyping of this trait, provides important information for nutritionists to identify and quantify the impact of low GI rices on blood sugar status and offers a mechanism for breeding programmes to select for GI based on amylose content. Furthermore, it allows rice consumers to select particular varieties of rice as their choice of carbohydrate.

Combined efforts of farmers, rice scientists, extension personnel and Government of Bangladesh have yielded clean rice growth rate of 0.34 million ton (MT) year -1 during 2009-10 to 2013-14 in the country. In 2014-15, the country acquired a rice surplus of about 2 MT. However, maintaining the current surplus of rice in the coming decades is a great challenge. Authentic estimation of future rice requirement and future resource availability would guide to way forward. This paper presents rice vision for Bangladesh leading to 2050 and beyond. In this study, secondary data from different government-owned statistics and research institutes were collected, analyzed and synthesized to develop models and/or model parameters to generate outputs such as future population, rice production and rice requirement. Population of Bangladesh will reach 215.4 million in 2050, when 44.6 MT of clean rice will be required. With the pace of rice-production-increase in the last five years, production can reach 47.2 MT, having a surplus of 2.6 MT in 2050. The study sets 2.6 MT as the target for clean rice surplus every year leading to 2050 and beyond. Several hurdles, such as increasing population, decreasing resources and increasing climate vulnerability, can hinder achieving the target. Three major interventions-accelerating genetic gain, minimizing yield gap and curtailing adoption lag-are proposed to break the barriers to achieve the target. Major challenges to implement the interventions include shrinking net cropped area, decreasing availability of irrigation water and increasing pressure on soil fertility. Smart technology such as, location specific variety, profitable cropping sequences, innovative cultural management, and mechanization coupled with smart dissemination using multiple means would ease production barriers. We recommend a number of measures, such as, guaranteeing a minimum cropped area, accelerating the rate of genetic gain in varietal development and intensifying collaboration among the stakeholders to reduce adoption lag of newly released promising rice varieties, to achieve the rice vision of Bangladesh leading to 2050 and beyond.

Amylose content is a parameter that correlates with the cooking behavior of rice. It is measured at the earliest possible stages of rice improvement programs to enable breeders to build the foundations of appropriate grain quality during cultivar development. Amylose is usually quantified by absorbance of the amylose-iodine complex. The International Network for Quality Rice (INQR) conducted a survey to determine ways that amylose is measured, reproducibility between laboratories, and sources of variation. Each laboratory measured the amylose content of a set of 17 cultivars of rice. The study shows that five different versions of the iodine