Giza 179 Egyptian rice variety: as a new, early, high-yielding, tolerant to saline, and climate change challenge

Abstract

Saline and drought conditions are the biggest threats to plant species around the world. The rice crop is one of the most important crops worldwide. Therefore, the Giza 179 rice variety was released in the 2013 season as an earlymaturing, high-yielding variety that is adapted and mitigated to drought and saline soils. This new variety was produced by crossbreeding between GZ6296-12-1-2-1-1 and GZ 1368-5-S-4 in the 2001 season. The first generation, "F1," of this cross was evaluated in the 2002 season and planted as the F2 generation in the 2003 season. Sequentially, the next generations from F3 to F6 were evaluated in the pedigree trails during the 2004-2007 seasons under code number GZ 9057. Two promising sister lines, GZ 9057-6-1-3-1 and GZ 9057-6-1-3-2, were selected and evaluated in a preliminary yield trail at the