A Medium Maturity, and High Quality Rice Variety, “Hwabongbyeo”

Abstract

This japonica cultivar was developed from a cross between two F1 hybrids of YR13168 (Milyang 95/Iri390) and YR13198 (Milyang101/Iri390) using anther culture. It has about 104 days of growing duration from seeding to heading and relatively short culm length of 78 cm with good canopy architecture. The variety has almost similar number of panicles per hill and spikelets per panicle to Dongjinbyeo. Hwabongbyeo is slightly susceptible to cold but considerbly tolerant to lodging. It did not show any prematuture heading in late transplanting with 70-day old seedlings. This cultivar is multi-resistant to blast, bacterial blight (K1 race) and stripe virus diseases but susceptible to insect pests. It has almost similar physicochemical properties and good eating quality of cooked rice to Dongjinbyeo. The milled rice yield of Hwabongbyeo is 5.52 MT/ha on local adaptability test plots (1995-1997) in mainly low-land area of southern part of Korea. Hwabongbyeo would be adaptable to southern plain and south-western coastal area of Korea.