The Andaman and Nicobar group of Islands (4 to 6°N lat. and 92 to 94°E long.) with about 3000 mm rainfall has typical hot and humid climate favourable for growing rice as well as pests multiplication. Rice is grown in about 12,000 ha. With an average yield of 2 t/ha, probably the low yield is due to the age old practice of growing long duration varieties coupled with pest incidence. It is estimated that by 2000 AD, the requirement of rice will be 69,000 tonnes for an expected population of 4.5 lakhs. This target has to be achieved in rice cultivable area with the high yielding short duration and pest resistant varieties. This paper gives details on the evaluation studies carried out. 1817 cultures were screened in a phased manner from 1984 to 1992–93 procured from different agroclimatic zones. Twenty four high yielding accessions with resistant to sheeth blight, and blast and bacterial blight, were isolated. Accessions with resistance to the specific diseases were also identified.
Riee, germplasm, yield, pest resistanee
