Agro-morphological characterization of rice landraces variety (Oryza sativa L.) of Bankura district of West Bengal

Rice is the major food grain of India and is being cultivated on 36.95million ha. land and present productivity is about 120.6 million tons per year.Agriculture in West Bengal is the means of livelihood of about 65% of the population ofthe state living in villages with over 95% as small and marginal farmers. West Bengal isgreat reservoir of rice. There are 5,556 rice varieties were recorded in the year 1975 fromthis state. Bankura district of West Bengal is also a great producer of rice. There are somany rice landraces were cultivated in this district in near past. But in present situationrice cultivation is restricted to 5-10 high yielding variety and few landraces varieties. Inthis study characterization of twenty landraces of rice presently available in this districtwas performed using DUS testing protocol. Agro-morphic characterization of thesetwenty landraces was done during 2011-12 & 2012-13 kharif session at the Village ofRanbahal, PO- Amarkanan of this District. In this study we observed that out of the 20investigated varieties 11 varieties are distinctive according to the five essential and theeighteen additional characters proposed by the DUS guideline. The present work is somuch important in respect to the present scenario of agro-biodiversity of this region aswell as identification, conservation and documentation of landraces variety for futurecrop improvement.