An early maturing rice mutant released as a variety

In the content of food grain production deficiency (about 1.0-1.5 million tons of rice per year according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 1998) an induced mutation programme was undertaken in 1985. One moderate early maturing and high yielding rice mutant line (BINA6-84-4-115) has been developed by irradiating F2 seeds of the cross 'BR4' x 'Iratom 38'. Three treatments viz., 250, 300 and 350 Gy were given to the F2 seeds. Finally, this line was selected in M6 generation for advanced yield trial. The line was evaluated in comparative trials with another mutant line BINA6-84-4-163. These two mutant lines had been selected earlier from 300 Gy originated lines. The two check varieties, 'BR 11' and 'BR 22' were also included in the trial, which was conducted in two consecutive T. aman seasons (July to December) during 1994 and 1995 at five locations in Bangladesh. From the results, it was evident that the mutant BINA6-84-4-115 did not differ much with the other mutant lines or check varieties in respect to plant height, number of effective tillers and panicle length but it was 10-18 days earlier than the other 3 entries. It produced a similar yield as the check BR 11 in 1994 and a higher yield than the check BR 11 and BR 22 in 1995. This mutant line gave the highest yield per day among all the entries. In addition to this, the grains are long, fine and possess a high L/B ratio, which are of high commercial value. This line has been released by the National Seed Board of Bangladesh in 1998 as a commercial variety under the name 'BINADHAN-4' for cultivation throughout Bangladesh