A Quick and Simple In-house Screening Protocol for Cold-Tolerance at Seedling Stage in Rice

Cold stress is an emerging threat for rice production in Bangladesh particularly in Boro season (winter rice) at seedling stage. Cold stress during seedbed stage or early establishment stage at the main field induces severe seedling mortality that increases cost cultivation and delays crop establishment and ultimately entails into low yield. Development of sustainable cold tolerant high yielding rice varieties warrants an efficient and economic screening technique of germplasms and breeding population. The protocols for cold screening that so far have been used by the breeders and reported in literature are generally dependent on natural cool temperature and/or expensive climate chamber. In this paper, we report an in-house screening protocol that requires less than three weeks to complete the screening cycle and can be used all year round for mass screening of breeding population.