Studies on Grain and Food Quality Traits of Some Indigenous Rice Cultivars of North-eastern Hill Region of India

Searching rice cultivars or variety with good processing and high in important essential nutrients are prime important in the present context of rice research. The north eastern hill region of India which is a mega biodiversity hot spot of the world has numerous cultivars of rice with tremendous potential of high quality rice. Eighteen indigenous cultivars of Tripura, a north eastern hill state of India were subjected to the study. Majority of the cultivars were of short bold grain type. Eleven cultivars were aromatic type with one cultivar of strong aroma comparable to Basmati rice. Eleven cultivars were found to possess higher hulling percentage more than 65% and six cultivars with more than 65% out turn. Majority of the cultivars had low amylose contents (<20%). Four cultivars were having higher total crude protein (>10%), six cultivars were having higher iron contents (>10ppm). In most of the characters, heritability (h2) was more than the genetic advance indicating more of environmental effect. Amylose, crude fibre and iron, genetic advance was high; selection for these traits will improve the genotypic value of selected plants over the parents. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was found in iron and amylose. The association of crude protein is significant but negative with carbohydrates and amylose, while with crude fat and zinc, the association is significant and positive. Carbohydrate was significantly and positively correlated with ash percent and iron concentration and negatively associated with total fat. There was no significant correlation between carbohydrate and amylose.