The Improvement of Early Maturity Red Rice Mutant Trait for Drought Tolerance

Accession of red rice does not have the traits of early maturity, drought tolerance and high yield. Mutation is needed to obtain the desired genetic resources. Gamma-ray irradiation is the right method because it was proved capable of producing hundreds of new varieties, which are better than the previous. This study aimed to identify the improvement of early maturity and drought tolerance of red rice mutant to gamma ray irradiation results. The research materials are M4, M5 and M6 strain, which are derived from the Bangka’s accession local red rice (Celak Madu, Ruten Puren and radix). The three accession seed have been treated with gamma-ray irradiation doses of 150, 200 and 250 Gray. The results showed gamma ray irradiation dose of 150 Gray and 200 Gray to red rice accession can form a mutant with the character of harvesting time less than 115 days after planting and was more drought tolerant than the previous. M6-GR150- 1-9-13 strain was selected as a candidate for early maturity, drought tolerant and high yield mutant.