Efficacy of Irrigation Interval after Anthesis on Grain Quality, Alkali Digestion, and Gel Consistency of Rice

Ramin Rayee,Tran Dang Xuan,Tran Dang Khanh,Hoang-Dung Tran,Kifayatullah Kifayatullah

doi:10.3390/agriculture11040325

Abstract

The management of amylose and protein contents and cooking quality are the main challenges in rice macronutrients and quality improvement. This experiment was conducted to examine the rice grain quality, alkali digestion, and gel consistency responses to irrigation interval after anthesis. Three rice varieties (K1, K3, and K4) were subjected to different irrigation intervals (1, 2, and 3 d) after anthesis. The findings of this study showed that the protein content was markedly increased from 6.53–6.63% to 9.93–10.16%, whilst the amylose content was decreased significantly from 22.00–22.43% to 16.33–17.56% under stressed treatments at irrigation intervals, whilst the quantity of fatty acids was not affected. The 3-d irrigation interval recorded the highest protein content but the lowest amylose value. In addition, this treatment shows lower gelatinization temperature, but it is negatively associated with hard gel consistency under irrigation interval. This study highlights that the water management following a 3-d irrigation interval from anthesis is a useful and simple treatment to improve rice nutrients and grain cooking quality.

Highlights

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is counted as the staple food in Asia, where approximately 90% of the world’s rice is produced, plays a leading figure to provide food for billion people worldwide [1,2]
Only protein and amylose were affected by the imposition of water deficit
To contrast between the two subtypes Indica and Japonica rice varieties, K1 and K3 revealed higher protein percentage compared to K4 under W3, whereas the amylose content of the Indica (K4) was less affected than the Japonica (K1 and K3)

Summary

Introduction

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is counted as the staple food in Asia, where approximately 90% of the world’s rice is produced, plays a leading figure to provide food for billion people worldwide [1,2]. About 50% of the world population are dependent on rice for their initial food calories [3,4]. The rice grain quality contents are determined by genetic interaction and environmental conditions [6]. Rice grain quality is mostly influenced by drought stress during the reproductive stage [7]. The breeders could increase the crop yield by genetic interaction and improving drought-tolerant varieties, but this process takes a long time and there is some misunderstanding for trait characteristics. The reproductive stage is a very critical period for rice crops and is a very susceptible stage to water deficit which generally results in the reduction of spikelet fertility during flowering [8]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion