E3 Journal of Agricultural Research and Development

E3 Journal of Agricultural Research and Development Vol. 7 (1) pp. 075-084, February 2017; © E3 Journals; ISSN 2276-9897
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18685/EJARD(7)1_EJARD-16-021

Grain quality attributes of new Rice Basmati lines of Pakistan

Abstract

The Choice of new rice varieties by farmers and consumers at the expense of indigenous varieties have become a source of worry to scientists in Pakistan. In the present research the cooking quality and physico-chemical characteristics of 14 newly developed lines and two check varieties widely grown grown in Punjab, Pakistan were investigated. Significant variation (P<0.05) was detected among the 15 rice varieties for all the traits evaluated. The results predicted that two newly developed rice Lines showed higest cooked grain length (CGL) during cooking. The grains of PK9533-9-6-1-1 had the highest elongation ratio of 1.900. “PK 9966-10-1 has the best physical appearance in terms of length but easily dissolves in water during cooking. Most of the physico-chemical characteristic such as amylose, protein and gelatinization temperature were significantly correlated (positively or negatively) with some of the cooking quality traits i.e., elongation ratio, CGL indicating that efforts aimed at selecting rice varieties with improved cooking quality traits would warrant a consideration of the physico-chemical attributes of the rice grain. The overall cooking quality and physico-chemical attributes of some of new lines were even relatively better than the Check (Super Basmati). Farmers should, therefore, be critical in accepting new varieties that may not be comparably outstanding in yield but also in cooking quality and physico-chemical characteristics, in order to preserve the integrity of new rice varieties.

Keywords: Grain Length, Chalkiness, Cooking quality, Post harvest losses, Rice