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Rice quality under water stress

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Indian Journal of Advances in Plant Research (IJAPR)

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Review Article

Rice quality under water stress

Pandey* A., Kumar A., Pandey D.S. and Thongbam P.D.
ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya*Corresponding Author:
Avinash Pandey
Email: nashpgr@gmail.com

Received: 2
Accepted:
Published:

ABSTRACT
About 13% of the worlds 156 million ha of rice is cultivated as rainfed rice under upland conditions where moisture
stress affects rice growth and reduces grain yield and quality. Water stress affects plant growth and development and ultimately,
reduces grain yield of rice. The reduction in yield may depend on the developmental stage of the crop. The response of rice yield
to soil water status varies with growth stage being most sensitive at flowering, followed by booting and grain filling stage. More
reduction in grain yield, due to water stress in flowering stage, is largely resulted from the reduction in fertile panicle and filled
grain percentage. Water stress also promoted the remobilization of stored carbon reserves and water deficit during grain-filling
enhanced plant senescence and accelerated grain-filling. It is generally believed that rice quality is determined both genetically
and environmentally. Soil water status, especially during the grain filling period, has a dramatic influence on grain quality of rice.
Key words: Grain quality, rice, water stress,
INTRODUCTION
Rice is one of the most important crop in the world,
growing in over 156 million hectares of land having overall
worldwide production (paddy rice) of 650 million tons per
annum. Now, rice is being grown in 117 countries and is a staple
food for 17 countries in Asia and the Pacific, eight countries in
Africa, seven countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, and
one in the Near East. When all developing countries are
considered together, rice provides 27% of dietary energy supply
and 20% of dietary protein intake. India is considered as one of
the centres of origin of rice (Oryza sativa ssp. indica) and an
important centre of its diversity (Ramiah, 1953) and it alone
produces nearly one fourth (21%) of the rice in the world, next
only to china (FAO, 2009). Rice is the staple food for its large
population and this crop is cultivated in almost all the Indian
states under a remarkably wide range of agro-climatic conditions
and ecological situations. Conventional flooded rice cultivation
in Asian provides more than 75% of the world rice supply for the
half the earths main staple food (Qin et al., 2006). To keep up
with population growth and income-induced demand for food in
most Asian counties, rice production needs to increase in coming
decades.

Rice is an anomaly among the domesticated cereals - a

tropical C3 grass that evolved in a semi-aquatic, low-radiation
habitat. As such, rice carries an odd portfolio of tolerances and
susceptibilities to abiotic stresses as compared to other crops.
Rice thrives in waterlogged soil and can tolerate submergence at
levels that would kill other crops, is moderately tolerant of
salinity and soil acidity, but is highly sensitive to drought and
cold. Drought is generally avoided in irrigated rice production
systems, but it is a consistent feature across all of rainfed rice
sown annually, most of which is in tropical Asia, Africa, and
Latin America (Narciso and Hossain, 2002). Rice is also the
greatest consumer of water among all crops and consumes about
80% of the total irrigated fresh water resources in Asia (Bouman
et al., 2007). Fresh water, however, is becoming increasingly
scarce because of population growth, increasing urban and
industrial development, and the decreasing availability resulting
from pollution and resource depletion (Belder et al., 2004).
Decreasing water availability for agriculture threatens the
productivity of irrigated rice ecosystem, and ways must be
sought to save water and maintain grain yield of rice. Besides
rice yield, quality of rice has a pivotal role in the adoption of new
varieties. Traits of grain quality dictate market value and a

Indian J. Adv. Plant Res.,

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determinant factor in economic returns for a farmer. This is
reflected by the persistence of benchmark varieties for many
decades in spite of the yield gains achieved over those same
decades. These varieties include Basmati 370, selected around
1920, and IR64, released in 1985. These varieties, although lowyielding and susceptible to stresses, continue to be grown on
many hectares because of their excellent quality.
Rice Quality
Grain quality in rice is very difficult to define with
precision as preferences for quality vary from country to country.
Few people realize its complexity and various quality
components involved. The concept of quality varies according to
the preparations for which grains are to be used. Although some
of the quality characteristics desired by grower, miller and
consumer may be the same, yet each may place different
emphasis on various quality characteristics. For instance, the
millers basis of quality is dependent upon total recovery and the
proportion of head and broken rice on milling. Consumers base
their concept of quality on the grain appearance, size and shape
of the grain, the behaviour upon cooking, the taste, tenderness
and flavour of cooked rice.
The cooking quality preferences vary in different
countries. Rice is one cereal that is consumed mainly as whole
milled and boiled grain. The desired properties may vary from
one ethnic group or geographical region to another and may vary
from country to country. The quality in rice may, therefore, be
considered from viewpoint of milling quality, grain size, shape
and appearance and cooking characteristics. Milling yield is one
of the most important criteria of rice quality especially from a
marketing standpoint. A variety should possess a high turnout of
whole grain (head) rice and total milled rice (Webb, 1985).
Milling yield of rough rice is the estimate of the quantity of head
rice and total milled rice that can be produced from a unit of
rough rice. It is generally expressed as percentage (Khush et al.,
The appearance of milled rice is important to the
consumer. Thus grain size and shape are the first criteria of rice
quality that breeders consider in developing new varieties for
release for commercial production. The length:breadth ratio
(L/B) falling between 2.5 and 3.0 has been considered widely
acceptable as long as the length is more than 6 mm (Kaul, 1970).
The consumer prefer rice with a translucent endosperm and pay a
premium price for it, even though opacity disappears during
cooking and does not alter eating quality. Preference for grain
size and shape vary from one group of consumers to the other.
Some ethnic groups prefer short bold grains, some have a
preference for medium long grains, and long slender grains are
highly prized by others. Grain appearance depends upon the size
and shape of the kernel, translucency and chalkiness of the grain.
Rice samples with damaged eyes have poor appearance and low
market value. Similarly, greater the chalkiness, lower the market
acceptability. The starch granules in the chalky areas are less
densely packed as compared to translucent areas. Therefore, the
chalky areas are not as hard as the translucent areas and the

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grains with chalkiness are more prone to breakage during

milling. Chalkiness is influenced by both genetic background and
the environment, as temperature immediately after flowering.
Other factors such as soil fertility and water management, both of
which tend to be problematic in rainfed lowlands, are expected to
affect the degree of chalkiness (Mackill et al., 1996).
Cooking and eating characteristics are largely
determined by the properties of the starch that makes up 90
percent of milled rice. Gelatinization temperature, amylose
content and gel consistency are the important starch properties
which influence cooking and eating characteristics. Time
required for cooking is determined by the gelatinization
temperature of starch. Gelatinization temperature, a physical
property of starch, is the range of temperature wherein at least
90% of the starch granules swell irreversibly in hot water with
loss of crystallinity and birefringence. Although the
gelatinization temperature and cooking time of milled rice are
positively correlated (Juliano, 1967), gelatinization temperature
does not correlate with the texture of cooked rice (IRRI, 1968).
Gelatinization temperature is not associated with other important
plant or grain traits except for certain useful correlations with
amylose content (Jennings et al., 1979). Varieties with high
gelatinization temperature generally have low amylose content.
Many of the cooking and eating characteristics of milled
rice are influenced by the ratio of two kinds of starchs; amylose
and amylopectin in the rice grain (Sanjiva Rao et al., 1952).
Amylose content correlates negatively with taste panel scores for
cohesiveness, tenderness, color and gloss of the boiled rice. Rice
varieties are grouped on the basis of their amylose content into
waxy (0-2%), very low (3-9%), low (10-19%), intermediate (2025%) and high (>25%) (Kumar and Khush, 1986). Intermediate
amylose rices are the preferred types in most of the ricegrowing
areas of the world, except where low-amylose japonicas are
grown. Some varieties expand more in size than others upon
cooking. Lengthwise expansion without increase in girth is
considered a highly desirable trait in some high-quality rices.
Grain elongation is a quantitative trait.
Water stress and rice quality
Water stress (commonly known as drought) can be
defined as the absence of adequate moisture necessary for a plant
to grow normally and complete its life cycle. The lack of
adequate moisture leading to water stress is a common
occurrence in rainfed areas, brought about by infrequent rains
and poor irrigation. About 13% of the worlds 156 million ha of
rice is cultivated as rainfed rice under upland conditions where
moisture stress affects rice growth and reduces grain yield and
quality (Carlos et al., 2008). Water stress affects plant growth
and development and ultimately, reduces grain yield of rice. The
reduction in yield may depend on the developmental stage of the
crop. The response of rice yield to soil water status varies with
growth stage being most sensitive at flowering, followed by
booting and grain filling stage (OToole, 1982). More reduction
in grain yield, due to water stress in flowering stage, is largely
resulted from the reduction in fertile panicle and filled grain

Indian J. Adv. Plant Res.,

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percentage. Water stress also promoted the remobilization of
stored carbon reserves and water deficit during grain-filling
enhanced plant senescence and accelerated grain-filling. Usually,
senescence induced by water deficit shortens grain-filling period
and can result in reduction in grain weight. According to Xie et
al. (2001) grain filling pattern had marked influence on final
grain quality. Meanwhile, great differences in quality among
grains within a spike were also recorded due to different filling
rates and assimilate competition. The effect of water stress on the
rice quality may be different for upland and lowland rice
cultivars. Cheng et al. (2003) reported that the upland cultivar
showed greater variation than lowland cultivars in appearance
and nutrient quality, and the good quality lowland cultivar
showed less stability in milled and cooking-eating quality than
the poor quality one.
Water is a major constituent of plant tissue as reagent
for chemical reactions and solvent for translocation of
metabolites and minerals as well as an essential component for
cell enlargement through increasing turgor pressure (Carlos et al.,
08). The occurrence of soil moisture stress affects many of the
physiological processes such as photosynthesis and transpiration
resulting in reduced growth and poor grain filling (Samonte et
al., 2001). Many studies have been conducted on the effects of
various irrigation methods on water utilization. However, little is
known regarding the influence of reduced water supply on rice
quality.
It is generally believed that rice quality is determined
both genetically and environmentally (Krishnan and Rao, 2005).
Soil water status, especially during the grain filling period, has a
dramatic influence on grain quality of rice (Dingkuhn and Gal,
1996). When the soil moisture content lowers, the milled rice
recovery and the brown rice protein content arc both significantly
raised, but the percentage of unripened grain is decreased,
meanwhile the amylose content in milled rice is decreased
(Renmin and Yuanshu
). There is increase of the head rice
ratio in moisture stress condition. Therefore, the occurrence of
drought during grain ripening stage could be considered as a
useful factor that might help to reduce broken grain in milled rice
with high level of head whole.
The amylose content generally becomes lower in water
stress condition, but, it may increase if the amylose content is
very low. Negative correlation is present between amylose
content and protein content in stress condition. Protein content is
also associated (remotely) with grain quality traits such as head
rice ratio, milled grain dimensions, milled grain appearance,
viscosity parameters. The increase of protein content can
improve the nutritional status of people; however the protein
content should be taken with care since it negatively correlates to
rice taste (Ishima et al., 1974). Basmati rice grown under poor
water supply conditions during grain filling time shows excessive
abdominal whiteness in grains whereas these factors adversely
affect cooking qualities. However, diminishing soil moisture at
the time of grain filling is reported to favour the aroma
formation.

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In flood condition, the kernels became soft and

developed fissures which contributed to low head rice recoveries.
The milled rice from them had lower kernel weight and protein
content but showed higher amylose and ash content. Flooding
generally has no effect on the gelatinisation time and temperature
but peak viscosity and setback may be affected. The floodaffected rice generally show lower cooking time and higher gruel
solids loss, and were rated poorer organoleptically.
Water stress effect on rice quality also depends on
different level of nitrogen content. Cai et al. (2006) examine the
effects of nitrogen (N) supply and water stress on rice grain yield
and its quality. Rice grown under normal N level, water stress
markedly reduced the grain-filling percentage and grain weight,
resulting in a significant decrease of grain yield. Though the
head-milled rice had a slight increase, the percentage of
chalkiness was significantly increased which resulted in an
inferior performance in grain-apparent quality. In contrast, when
the plants were grown under high N level, water stress increased
the grain yield because of the increase of grain-filling percentage
and grain weight. As compared with well watering, water stress
decreased the percentages of chalky grain and chalking, which
improved the performance of grain-apparent quality. According
to the performance in the indices of cooked quality, the
palatability became poor when subjected to water stress under
normal N level, as the result of the increase of hardness and
cohesiveness. In contrast, under high N level, water stress availed
the ascending of viscosity at the early stage when rice flours
were pasting, peak viscosity and breakdown were increased, and
setback was decreased, suggesting that the palpability got well.
Stressed rice grains have lower gelatinization
temperature and lower peak viscosity. It is well known that there
is a positive correlation between gelatinization temperature and
cooking time (Veronic et al., 2007). Therefore, the occurrence of
the moisture stressed at the ripening stage could shorten grain
cooking time. Cooking time reduction is very important in terms
of energy and time saving. The increase of the peak viscosity
time and value of the breakdown observed in stressed samples
showed that moisture stress during ripening stage induces higher
grain volume expansion upon cooking. Moisture stress during
grain maturity stage causes physico-chemical variation in rice
grain. Late drought that occurs during ripening stage appears to
increase the main characteristics defining rice grain quality
including total milling rate, head rice ratio, and protein content
(Fofana et al., 2010). Since the criteria of choice of a given
variety depend on each consumer, it might not be well advised to
conclude that the occurrence of water deficit during ripening
stage necessarily or not enhance rice grain quality.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are thankful to the Director, ICAR RC for
NEH Region, Umiam, Meghalaya 793103, India for providing
the facilities for the study under the project Development of
high yielding and stress tolerant upland rice for mid altitudes of
Meghalaya.

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