Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 5.4.
Evolution of area of major cultivars grown in Uruguay between 1970 and 2013.
medium- and short-grain cultivars. The area sown with Bluebelle
declined rapidly in the early 1990s following the adoption of the
already-mentioned local high-yielding cultivars, which had 20
-
30%
higher grain yield (Fig. 5.4). Currently, the three major cultivars released
by the local breeding programaccount for 84%of the rice area: El Paso 144
(43%), INIA Olimar (26%), and INIA Tacuarí (15%). The
rst two are
indica
ecotypes and the last one is a
tropical japonica
. In recent years,
there has been an increase in the area grown with other minor cultivars,
reaching 16% in 2012
eld hybrids
(5.5%) and cultivars (3.5%), improved blast-resistant cultivars (4%), and
special-quality cultivars (3%).
-
2013, driven by the adoption of Clear
4. Rice Breeding Programs.
The public rice breeding program started
in 1970, after the establishment of the Eastern Experimental Station
(EEE), under the Ministry of Agriculture, and continued under
INIA after 1990, when the Institute was established. Early work was
based on
tropical japonica
materials, introduced from the southern
United States. The
indica
germplasm was introduced later in the
1970s and 1980s from IRRI and CIAT. FLAR has been the main source
for the introduction of
indica
germplasm after Uruguay became a
member in 1997 (Blanco et al. 2003). Since the late 1970s, breeding
work has focused on developing both
tropical japonica
and
indica
long-grain cultivars. Other secondary breeding objectives were incor-
porated later, such as developing Clear
eld
and short-grain cultivars,
aromatic germplasm, and hybrids. Currently, 85% of the area is grown
