Identification of maintainer and restorer lines for WA cytoplasmic male sterility in rice using pollen fertility and spikelet fertility

Hybrid technology in many crops has contributed 20-30 per cent increase in the production and exploitation of heterosis through the development of F1 hybrids which has been recently deployed in rice with yield advantage of 20-25 per cent over best pure lines. The main aim of any plant breeding programme is to develop special high yielding hybrids and success of any plant breeding programme depends on the choice of appropriate genotypes as parents in the hybridization programme.