Abstract

This article reviewed on general overview of characterization of rice germplasm in Nepal. Nepal is one of the centers known for the diversity for rice. A total of 8389 rice accessions from Nepal were conserved in different national and international gene banks. Germplasm collection is important for the maintenance of biological diversity and food security. About 2500 rice accessions were characterized by agro-morphological traits, biochemical and DNA markers by NARC and other organizations, but other remaining germplasm were not characterized yet all. All the germplasm were needed to characterize agro-morphologically, biochemically and molecular level because these are the source of valuable genes; which is important tool of crop improvement. Isoenzymes and SSR molecular analysis technique were used to characterize biochemical and molecular properties of rice germplasm. Molecular and biochemical characterizations of rice germplasm were very limited because of physical facilities which were not available for the systematic evaluation of the germplasm for biochemical and genetic finger printing. Nepal was dependent about 95 to 100% on foreign germplasm for varietal development. A systematic study was conducted to characterize all the rice accessions agro-physiologically and moelcular level to identified valuable gene and used in crop improvement program. Studies showed that farmers conserved the landraces at farm level now gene bank, DNA bank and field bank involved in germplasm conservation. Research on rice germplasm characterization is being conducted at research and academic institution in Nepal.