Heterosis breeding in safflower Present status and future prospects under Indian scenario

Presently genetic male sterility (GMS), cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS) and thermo sensitive genetic male sterility (TGMS) lines are available in India. Development of agronomically superior genetic male-sterile lines in safflower in India have resulted in the development and release of spiny safflower hybrids DSH-129 and MKH-11 in 1997 and NARI-H-15 in 2005, the first nonspiny hybrid safflower NARI-NH-1 in 2001. These hybrids in general exhibit an increase of 20 to 25% increase in seed and oil yield over the national check A-1. Recently in the year 2006, a cytoplasmic-genetic male sterility (CMS) based hybrid MRSA-521, bred by a private seed company “Mahyco”, has been released for commercial cultivation. A few more hybrids based on CMS and TGMS are on the way. Since safflower is grown in India mainly in winter, the identification of thermosensitive male steriles expressing male sterility in winter will be of great use for producing commercial scale hybrid seed at the lowest possible cost.