title: Water-saving technologies affect the grain characteristics and recovery of fine-grain rice cultivars in semi-arid environment.
abstract: Growing rice with less water is direly needed due to declining water sources worldwide, but using methods that require less water inputs can have an impact on grain characteristics and recovery. A 2-year field study was conducted to evaluate the impact of conventionally sown flooded rice and low-water-input rice systems on the grain characteristics and recovery of fine rice. Three fine grain rice cultivars-Super Basmati, Basmati 2000, and Shaheen Basmati-were grown under conventional flooded transplanted rice (CFTR), alternate wetting and drying (AWD), and aerobic rice systems. Grain characteristics and rice recovery were significantly influenced by different water regimes (production systems). Poor milling, including the lowest percentage of brown (head) rice (65.3%) and polished (white) rice (64.2-66.9%) and the highest percentage of broken brown rice (10.2%), husk (24.5%-26.3%), polished broken rice (24.7%), and bran (11.0-12.5%), were recorded in the aerobic rice system sown with Shaheen Basmati. With a few exceptions, cultivars sown in CFTR were found to possess a higher percentage of brown (head) and polished (white) rice and they had incurred the least losses in the form of brown broken rice, husk, polished broken rice, and bran. In conclusion, better grain quality and recovery of rice can be attained by growing Super Basmati under the CFTR system. Growing Shaheen Basmati under low-water-input systems, the aerobic rice system in particular, resulted in poor grain characteristics tied with less rice recovery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan. khawarjabran@gmail.com.|Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, Düzce University, Düzce, Turkey. khawarjabran@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Khawar
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Jabran
authors.affiliation: Department of Food Science and Technology, Sejong University, 209, Neundong-ro, Gwangjingu, Seoul, 05006, Republic of Korea.|Institute of Food Science and Nutrition, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, 60800, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Muhammad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Riaz
authors.affiliation: Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, 60800, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Mubshar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hussain
authors.affiliation: Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (CIIT), Vehari, 61100, Pakistan. wajidnaseem2001@gmail.com.|CIHEAM-Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen de Montpellier (IAMM), 3191 Route de Mende, 34090, Montpellier, France. wajidnaseem2001@gmail.com.|CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystem, National Agricultural Research Flagship, Toowoomba, QLD, 4350, Australia. wajidnaseem2001@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Wajid
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Nasim
authors.affiliation: Institute of Soil and Environmental Sciences, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Umar
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Zaman
authors.affiliation: College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, Hubei, 430070, China. shah_fahad80@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Shah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fahad
authors.affiliation: Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), The University of Queensland, Gatton, Queensland, 4343, Australia.
authors.forename: Bhagirath Singh
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Chauhan
mesh_terms: D003890:Desiccation; D002523:Edible Grain; D004777:Environment; D012275:Oryza; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D014867:Water
keywords: Fine-grain rice cultivars and semi-arid environment; Grain characteristics; Production systems; Rice