Narrow Genetic Base of Cultivated Germplasm of Two Cereals Grown in Trinidad and Tobago.

Rice and Corn are the two cereals grown in Trinidad and Tobago. In this country, the genetic variability in the cultivated germplasm of these two cereal crops is extremely low. In case of rice, the availability of germplasm for irrigated rice in the Caribbean and Latin American countries became extremely low when CIAT (International Centre for Tropical Agriculture) changed its mandate from irrigated rice to upland rice. The cultivated germplasm in this country includes only two old varieties ‘Orizyca 1’ and ‘Orizyca 8’, four recently introduced varieties developed by Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), namely ‘GRDB 9’, ‘GRDB 10’, ‘GRDB 11’ and ‘GRDB 12’, and a few unlabelled lines available with local farmers having small land holdings. In order to revitalize rice cultivation in this country, there is need to introduce improved rice germplasm from CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) institutes. A program has been initiated to obtain rice nurseries from the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines for testing at the Centeno Research Centre and other locations in the country. While efforts will be made to identify agronomically superior lines with resistance to diseases and pests for immediate use, the contrasting genotypes identified for yield contributing characters, disease and pest resistance, and quality traits shall be used to make crosses for developing populations for molecular mapping/tagging. In case of corn, only two open pollinated varieties, one of field corn and other of white sweet corn, are currently available. In this case also, corn germplasm shall be obtained from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), Mexico to test for yield contributing characters, high water use efficiency, disease and pest resistance and quality characters suitable for processing. Availability of corn with suitable processing quality characters can go a long way to boost processing industry in this country.