• A variety refers to a genotype or group of genotypes which have been released for commercial cultivation either by State Variety Release Committee (SVRC) or Central Variety Release Committee (CVRC) and notified by the government of India. A variety is also termed as cultivar (cultivated variety).
• A variety has three important characteristics, viz.:

(1) Distinctness

(2) Uniformity, and

(3) Stability.

• The distinctness means that the variety should be distinguishable by one or more morphological, physiological and biochemical features from all pre-existing cultivars.
• Uniformity means that the variety should be pure and look uniform, stability means that the variety should give stable performance in different generations. In other words, the variety should remain unchanged in its distinctness and uniformity for reasonable period of time when reproduced or reconstituted (hybrid).