Strategic alliances in rice breeding for Latin America and the Caribean : Result of a regional rice synthetic population breeding project

Rice population improvement has been going-on in Latin America since 1984, when scientists from the Rice and Beans Center of "Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria" (EMBRAPA), Goiânia, Brazil, and the "Centre de coopération internationale en recherche appliquée au développement" (CIRAD), Montpellier, France, began a collaborative project and were the first breeders in the region to create broad genetic base synthetic rice populations targeting irrigated lowland and upland rice growing environments. Today, almost all countries in the region have activities related to population improvement in their rice breeding programs. Starting in 1992, the Cirad/CIAT rice collaborative project concentrates on broadening the genetic base of rice through synthetic population improvement using recurrent selection combined with conventional breeding methods. From 1006, the project became regional. Recurrent selection is not intended to replace conventional breeding that have been successful. Recurrent selection methods supplement others breeding methods and have to be considered as another type of breeding method in the breeders' arsenal available for developing improved varieties. The project conducts centralized upland breeding and pre-breeding activities in Colombia, and decentralized upland-aerobic and lowland rice breeding projects at regional level, counting-on different cooperators in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Basic composite populations are developed, shared and enhanced with regional cooperators. In Colombia, basic upland composite populations are enhanced using two recurrent selection-breeding methods: mass and S2 progenies evaluation. At each step of enhancement, fertile plants are selected for the development of segregating lines and progeny selection using the conventional pedigree method. The most advanced upland lines are shared with LAC cooperators through the CIAT-ION nurseries and are locally screened and selected. The best promising lines are evaluated at countries' regional yield trials. For lowland irrigated rice ecosystems, the activities are completely decentralized, and conducted in close collaboration with LAC cooperators who adopted the novel breeding method. Several candidate advanced lines are in the process of becoming varieties in different countries. Leadership in networking, shared between Cirad/CIAT and Embrapa Arroz e Feijão, permits to maintain the "Working Group on Advanced Rice Breeding" (GRUMEGA its Spanish acronym) strong and efficient with impact on research, capacity building and the development of the rice sector. (Résumé d'auteur