Genomic Breeding of Green Super Rice Varieties and Their Deployment in Asia and Africa

KEY MESSAGE: The “Green Super Rice” (GSR) project aims to fundamentally transform crop production techniques and promote the development of green agriculture based on functional genomics and breeding of GSR varieties by whole-genome breeding platforms. ABSTRACT: Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the leading food crops of the world, and the safe production of rice plays a central role in ensuring food security. However, the conflicts between rice production and environmental resources are becoming increasingly acute. For this reason, scientists in China have proposed the concept of Green Super Rice for promoting resource-saving and environment-friendly rice production, while still achieving a yield increase and quality improvement. GSR is becoming one of the major goals for agricultural research and crop improvement worldwide, which aims to mine and use vital genes associated with superior agronomic traits such as high yield, good quality, nutrient efficiency, and resistance against insects and stresses; establish genomic breeding platforms to breed and apply GSR; and set up resource-saving and environment-friendly cultivation management systems. GSR has been introduced into eight African and eight Asian countries and has contributed significantly to rice cultivation and food security in these countries. This article mainly describes the GSR concept and recent research progress, as well as the significant achievements in GSR breeding and its application. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s00122-019-03516-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.