‘Seomyeong’ is a new japonica rice variety developed and registered by the rice breeding team of Department of Rice and Winter Cereal Crop, NICS, RDA, in 2009. This variety was derived from the cross between ‘Gyehwa21’ having a good grain quality and ‘Milyang165’ having a high yield and lodging resistance. This variety had about 121 days growth duration from transplanting to harvesting in Honam and Yeongnam plain of Korea. It has about 70 cm in culm length and tolerance to lodging. In reaction to biotic and abiotic stresses, it shows resistance to brown spot and rice stripe virus and moderately resistant to leaf blast. But it is susceptible to bacterial blight and insect pests. The milled rice of ‘Seomyeong’ shows translucent with non-glutinous endosperm and medium short grain. It shows 19.3% amylase and 7.2% protein content. The milled rice yield of ‘Seomyeong’ is about 5.6 MT/ha under the ordinary transplanting cultivation in Korean climate conditions. ‘Seomyeong’ would be adaptable to south-western costal area in Korea.
