System Integrated Field-Optimized Speed Breeding Coupled with Genomic Selection Drives Multiplicative Genetic Gain and Enhances Breeding Efficiency in Rice

Rice sustains over half of the global population, making accelerated genetic gain critical for food security. Integrating Field-optimized Speed Breeding with Genomic Selection (FSB-GS) establishes a cost-neutral, infrastructure-agnostic, high-throughput paradigm that surpasses the < 1% annual genetic gain typical of conventional rice breeding pipelines, which are constrained by long breeding cycles, small populations, and sequential selection. By combining Field-optimized Speed Breeding (FSB) technologies, such as Field Rapid Generation Advance (Field-RGA), Field Nursery (FN), and polyhouse-based Field RGA (PF-RGA) with Genomic Selection (GS), FSB-GS transforms rice breeding into a rapid, prediction-driven, and resource-efficient system. FSB-GS enables 2.5-3.5 generations per year, achieves line fixation within 1.5-2.0 years, maintains large effective populations (2,000-5,000 lines per cross), and increases fixed-line turnover up to 250-fold without raising costs. Early-generation genomic selection strengthens population improvement, parental choice, preserves diversity, improves predictive accuracy, and reduces phenotyping obligation. Collectively, these efficiencies reduce land use, operational complexity, and phenotyping costs by ~ 25%, enabling higher selection intensity and resource-efficient multi-environment testing. By optimizing cycle length, selection intensity, and accuracy, FSB-GS delivers multiplicative genetic gains. Integrated with enabling technologies such as marker-assisted selection, digital platforms, and AI-driven analytics, it achieves 2-3-fold higher annual genetic gain and considerably lower cost per unit gain than conventional pipelines. Scalable and breeder-friendly, FSB-GS offers a practical blueprint for modernizing rice breeding, accelerating varietal turnover, and deploying climate-resilient, high-quality cultivars to strengthen global food security. Field-optimized Speed Breeding with Genomic Selection (FSB-GS) offers a cost-neutral, infrastructure-independent, and scalable approach to transform rice breeding. By enabling rapid line fixation, substantially higher throughput, and early parent recycling, it compresses breeding cycles, enhances selection intensity and accuracy, and amplifies genetic gain. Fully compatible with enabling technologies such as digital phenotyping and AI-driven prediction, FSB-GS provides a practical, globally scalable framework for modern, resilient, and resource-efficient rice breeding.