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- Jazzman: A new jasmine-type rice variety
Linda F. Benedict, Sha, Xueyan, Linscombe, Steven D.
Steve Linscombe and Xueyan Sha
The first U.S.-bred Jasmine-type aromatic rice variety named Jazzman has been developed at the LSU Ag- Center’s Rice Research Station and released in 2009. Jazzman was developed through cross-breeding and pedigree selection from a cross made in 1996 between the Arkansas variety Ahrent and the unreleased Chinese aromatic rice line 96a-8, which has the Jasmine-type cooking quality. Jazzman has similar physicochemical properties and cooking qualities to the imported Thai Jasmine. It has extremely translucent grains, and most importantly, a fairly strong aroma. The cooked rice is soft, sweet and glossy.
Jazzman has high yield potential and good milling quality. On average, Jazzman yielded 6,961 pounds per acre in the multi-location trials conducted in five mid-South states from 2003 to 2008, compared with 7,586 and 6,791 pounds per acre for conventional variety Cheniere and Cypress, respectively. The head rice (milled whole grain) yield of Jazzman is similar to that of the best milling conventional varieties such as Cypress and Cheniere. The average head rice yield of Jazzman was 63.6 percent. For Cypress, it was 64.3 percent, and for Cheniere, 63.1 percent. Jazzman has the maturity and conventional plant height of Cypress. With its improved resistance to sheath blight and blast, Jazzman appears suitable for organic production.
With greatly improved grain appearance and cooking quality, competitive grain and milling yield, a good disease package, and desirable physical traits, Jazzman will provide U.S. rice growers the opportunity to capture some of the significant and fast-expanding domestic jasmine rice niche markets.
Steve Linscombe, Director, Southwest Region, and Xueyan Sha, Associate Professor, Rice Research Station, Crowley, La.
(This article was published in the summer 2009 issue of Louisiana Agriculture.)