Bangladesh Agriculture & Food Security: Hybrid rice and maize varieties

Hybrid rice is the commercial rice crop grown from F1 seeds of a cross between two genetically dissimilar parents. Good rice hybrids have the potential of yielding 15-20 percent more than the best in-bred variety grown under similar conditions. BRAC is the pioneer in hybrid rice variety development, seed production and marketing in Bangladesh. BRAC has also initiated research and development work on hybrid rice and maize since the inception of hybrid rice research and development in Bangladesh.  BRAC has evaluated parent materials from China under Bangladesh conditions, and in 2009, released four hybrid rice varieties under the commercial names of HB 09, Jagoran, Shakti, Shakti 2, Alloran and Alloran 2. In addition, three hybrid maize and eight vegetable varieties were also released by the seed board of the government. Out of the three hybrid maize, one is the quality protein maize (QPM).