Contents: Foreword/M.S. Swaminathan. 2. Preface. 1. Genetic resources of rice in India: an overview/S.D. Sharma. 2. Rice Germplasm at Central rice Research Institute: exploration, collection, conservation and utilization/B.C. Patra and S.R. Dhua. 3. Role of directorate of rice research in evaluation, utilization and conservation of rice germplasm in India/N. Shobha Rani, G.S. Varaprasad, L.V. Subba Rao, U. Chaitanya and B.C. Viraktamath. 4. Role of Indian Agricultural Research Institute in Collection, Acquisition, Evaluation, Enhancement, Utilisation and conservation of rice germplasm/V.P. Singh and A.K. Singh. 5. Management of rice genetic resources: role of National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources/Sanjeev Saxena, S.K. Sharma, Kalyani Srinivasan, D.K. Hore, J.C. Rana, D.R. Pani, N. Dikshit and A.D. Sharma. 6. Collection, evaluation and characterization of rice germplasm for North East India/A. Pattanayak, B.K. Sarma, J.K. Singh, M. Borthakur, T.P. Devi and P. Khate. 7. Collection, evaluation and utilization of rice genetic resources for salt tolerance by Central soil salinity Research Institute of India/R.K. Gautam, R.K. Singh, B. Mishra, Vinod Verma and Sharik Ali. 8. Collection, conservation, evaluation and utilization of rice genetic resources at the Vivekanand Parvatiya Krishi Anusandhan Sansthan for the North West Hill Region/P.K. Agrawal, J.P. Aditya, J. Stanley, R.K. Sharma, P. Kumar and J. Bhatt. 9. Exploration, collection, conservation and utilization of wild rices for the improvement of cultivated rice/S.D. Sharma and B.C. Patra. 10. Role of biotechnology in exploiting rice germplasm/D.R. Pani and L. Behera. 11. Regulatory aspects in exchange of rice germplasm: Indian perspective/Arjun Lal and Vandana Tyagi. 12. Rice germplasm: conservation and utilization in Tamil Nadu/M. Subramanian, S. Robin and K. Thivagarajan. 13. Rice germplasm of Kerala/Leena Kumary S. 14. Rice germplasm of Chhattisgarh: collection, evaluation, utilization and conservation/G.R. Sahu, N.K. Motiramani, A.K. Sarawgi, D.J. Pophaly, R.L. Pandey and M.N. Shrivastava. 15. Genetic resources of rice in Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand: a critical analysis/J.L. Dwivedi. 16. Genetic resources of rice in North East India: role of Assam and Assam Agricultural University/T. Ahmed, G.R. Das and S.K. Chetia. 17. Landraces of rice: traditional and participatory conservation systems in Jeypore Tract of Orissa/Smita Mishra and Susanta Sekhar Chaudhury. 18. Collection of unique rice germplasm from the cradle of rice (Oryza Sativa L.) in Eastern Uttar Pradesh/R.C. Chaudhary and S.B. Mishra. 19. Varietal diversity of rice as recorded in ancient texts of India/K. Pavithran and S. Anitha. Index.

According to a crude estimate, there were about 100,000 traditional rice varieties in India a hundred years back. Ever since rice research started in this country about a hundred years ago, there were many piecemeal efforts to collect these varieties, characterize them, evaluate them and use them for the improvement of rice varieties. With the advent of high yielding rice varieties in 1960s, these local varieties have been progressively dropped from cultivation in preference to the high yielding modern ones. These traditional types are, however, the genetic wealth of the country as they provide the basic raw material for the improvement of rice crop in future. Therefore, intensified efforts were made to collect and conserve these genetic resources before they are lost forever. Collection, conservation, characterization, evaluation, documentation and utilization demand scientific knowledge and management. This book is an attempt to document all the efforts made during the last one hundred years in this field in India, earlier by the state departments of agriculture and, in recent years, by the agricultural universities and national institutes.

Chapters have been contributed by the rice scientists who are very much involved with the conservation of rice genetic resources in this country and have long years of experience in this field. Dr. S.D. Sharma, the editor of this book, has been associated with the various activities in this associated with the various activities in this field for the last fifty years. He has already edited four books (in association with his colleagues) in his field, namely, monograph on genus Oryza, genetic improvement of rice varieties in India, rice in Indian perspective and Rice: origin, antiquity and history. This is the fifth book edited by him.