Rice (Oryza sativa)
ORIGIN
Rice is regarded as a first cultivated crop of Asia.
Preserved rice grains were found in China around 3000 B.C.
Paddy grains found during excavation at Hastinapur (India) around
1000-750 B.C. considered as an oldest sample in the world.
Southwest Himalayas has various types and varieties and indicated
probable centre of origin.
De Condolle (1886) and Watt (1862) mentioned south India is its centre
of origin.
Vavillov suggested that India and Myanmar should be regarded as the
centre of origin of cultivated rice.
According to D. Chatterjee (1948), there are altogether 23 species of
genus Oryza of which 21 are wild and two viz., Oryza sativa and Oryza
glaberrima are cultivated.
Oryza sativa is grown in all rice growing areas, but Oryza glaberrima is
confined to the West Africa only.
Thus it indicates that there might have been two centres of origin of our
cultivated rice; South-eastern Asia (India, Myanmar and Thailand) and
West Africa.
genetic study in 2011 that showed that all forms of Asian rice,
both indica and japonica, sprang from a single domestication event that occurred
13,500 to 8,200 years ago in China from the wild rice Oryza rufipogon.
Rice was gradually introduced north into
early Sino-
Tibetan Yangshao and Dawenkou
culture millet farmers, either via contact
with the Daxi culture or the Majiabang-
Hemudu culture. By around 4000 to 3800
BC, they were a regular secondary crop
among southernmost Sino-Tibetan
cultures. It did not replace millet, largely
because of different environment
conditions in northern China, but it was
cultivated alongside millet in the southern
boundaries of the millet-farming regions.
Conversely, millet was also introduced into
rice-farming regions.
The spread of japonica rice cultivation to Southeast Asia started with the
migrations of the Austronesian Dapenkeng culture into Taiwan between 3500 and
2000 BC (5,500 BP to 4,000 BP). The Nanguanli site in Taiwan, dated to ca. 2800 BC,
has yielded numerous carbonized remains of both rice and millet in waterlogged
conditions, indicating intensive wetland rice cultivation and dryland millet
cultivation.
Rice was cultivated in the Indian subcontinent from as
early as 5,000 BC. "Several wild cereals, including rice, grew
in the Vindhyan Hills, and rice cultivation, at sites such as
Chopani-Mando and Mahagara, may have been underway
as early as 7,000 BP.
Rice appeared in the Belan and Ganges valley regions
of northern India as early as 4530 BC and 5440 BC,
respectively.
The early domestication process of rice in ancient India was
based around the wild species Oryza nivara. This led to the
local development of a mix of 'wetland' and 'dryland'
agriculture of local Oryza sativa var. indica rice agriculture,
before the truly 'wetland' rice Oryza sativa var. japonica,
arrived around 2000 BC.
MORPHOLOGY
Rice (oryza sativa) belongs to the family of cereal
grasses, along with wheat, corn, millet, oats, barley, rye,
and numerous others. The grass family provides the
world with over 60% of its caloric intake and over 75%
of the protein for developing nations.
he parts of the rice plant may be divided as follows:
- roots
- stem and leaves
- reproductive organs
- grain
II. Roots
As the underground portion of the plant, the roots serve as support, draw food and
water from the soil, and store food. They are fibrous and consist of rootless and root
hairs. The embryonic roots, or those which grow out of the seed when it germinates,
nave few branches. They live for only a short time after germination. Secondary
adventitious roots (i.e. roots appearing in an irregular pattern) emerge from the
underground nodes of the young culm and replace the embryonic roots.
III. Stem and Leaves
a) Stem
The role of the stem (or culm) is to support the leaves and reproductive structures, and
to transfer essential nutrients between the roots, the leaves, and the reproductive
structures. The stem is made up of a series of nodes and internodes in alternating order.
b) Leaves
The leaves function as the principal
organs of photosynthesis and
respiration (i.e. they contain
chlorophyll-containing cells which
convert sunlight to chemical energy and
synthesize organic "fuel" compounds
from inorganic compounds). The leaves
are borne at an angle on the stem in two
ranks - one at each node. The uppermost
leaf below the panicle, the flag leaf,
provides the most important source of
photosynthetic energy during
reproduction.
III. Reproductive Organs
a) Panicle
The panicle, or flower cluster, contains
the reproductive organs of the rice
plant. Borne atop the uppermost node
on the stem, the panicle is divided into
primary, secondary, and sometimes
tertiary branches bearing the spikelets.
The branches may be arranged singly or
in pairs. The panicle stands erect at
blooming, but it usually drops as the
spikelets fill, mature, and develop into
grains. Varieties differ greatly in the
length, shape, and angle of the primary
branches, as well as in the weight of the
overall panicle
b) Spikelet
Each individual spikelet contains a set of
floral parts flanked by the lemma and
palea. The flower consists of six stamens
and a pistil. The stamens (which contain
pollen, or "sperm") are composed of two-
celled anthers borne on slender filaments.
The pistil consists of the ovary (containing
the ovule, or "egg"), the style, and the
stigma. During reproduction, the stigma
catches pollen from the stamens and
conducts it down to the ovary, where it
comes into contact with the ovule and
fertilization occurs.
V. Grain
The grain is the seed of the rice plant, a fertilized and ripened ovule containing a live
embryo capable of germinating to produce a new plant. It is composed of the ripened
ovary, the lemma and palea, the rachilla, the sterile lemmas, and the awn (not always
present). The lemma and palea and their associated structures constitute the hull or
husk. The embryo lies at the ventral side of the spikelet next to the lemma and
contains the embryonic root. The rest of the grain consists largely of endosperm (the
edible portion), containing starch, proteins, sugar, fats, crude fiber, and inorganic
matter.
Cultivation and Processing
1. Seed quality and selection
Seed is a living product that must be grown,
harvested, and processed correctly in order to
realize the yield potential of any rice variety.
Good quality seed can increase yields by 5-20%.
Using good seed leads to lower seeding rates,
higher crop emergence, reduced replanting, more
uniform plant stands, and more vigorous early
crop growth.
2. Land preparation
Before rice can be planted, the soil should be in the best physical condition for crop
growth and the soil surface is level. Land preparation involves plowing and harrowing
to ‘till’ or dig-up, mix and level the soil.
3. Crop establishment
The two main practices of establishing rice plants
are transplanting and direct seeding.
Transplanting is the most popular plant
establishment technique across Asia. Pre-
germinated seedlings are transferred from a
seedbed to the wet field. It requires less seed and
is an effective method to control weeds, but
requires more labor. Seedlings may be
transplanted by either machine or hand.
Direct seeding involves broadcasting dry seed or
pre-germinated seeds and seedlings by hand or
planting them by machine. In rainfed and
deepwater ecosystems, dry seed is manually
broadcast onto the soil surface and then
incorporated either by ploughing or by
harrowing while the soil is still dry. In irrigated
areas, seed is normally pre- germinated prior to
broadcasting.
4. Water use and management
Cultivated rice is extremely sensitive to water shortages. To ensure sufficient water,
most rice farmers aim to maintain flooded conditions in their field. This is especially
true for lowland rice. Good water management in lowland rice focuses on practices
that conserve water while ensuring sufficient water for the crop.
5. Harvest
Harvesting is the process of collecting the mature rice crop from the field.
Depending on the variety, a rice crop usually reaches maturity at around 105–150
days after crop establishment. Harvesting activities include cutting, stacking,
handling, threshing, cleaning, and hauling. Good harvesting methods help
maximize grain yield and minimize grain damage and deterioration.
Harvesting can be done manually or mechanically:
Manual harvesting is common across Asia It involves cutting the rice crop with
simple hand tools like sickles and knives. Manual harvesting is very effective when a
crop has lodged or fallen over, however it is labor intensive. Manual harvesting
requires 40 to 80 hours per hectare and it takes additional labor to manually collect
and haul the harvested crop.
Mechanical harvesting using reapers or combine harvesters is the other option, but
not so common due to the availability and cost of machinery. Following cutting the
rice must be threshed to separate the grain from the stalk and cleaned. These
processes can also be done by hand or machine.
Drying
7 Before milling, rice grains must be dried in order to decrease the moisture content
to between 18-22%. This is done with artificially heated air or, more often, with the
help of naturally occurring sunshine. Rice grains are left on racks in fields to dry out
naturally. Once dried, the rice grain, now called rough rice, is ready for processing.
Hulling
8 Hulling can be done by hand by rolling or grinding the rough rice between stones.
However, more often it is processed at a mill with the help of automated processes.
The rough rice is first cleaned by passing through a number of sieves that sift out the
debris. Blown air removes top matter.
From the shelling machine, the grains and hulls are conveyed to a stone reel that
aspirates the waste hulls and moves the kernels to a machine that separates the
hulled from the unhulled grains. By shaking the kernels, the paddy machine forces
the heavier unhulled grains to one side of the machine, while the lighter weight rice
falls to the other end. The unhulled grains are then siphoned to another batch of
shelling machines to complete the hulling process. Hulled rice grains are known as
brown rice.
Milling
Since it retains the outer bran layers of the rice grain, brown rice needs no other
processing. However along with added vitamins and minerals, the bran layers also
contain oil that makes brown rice spoil faster than milled white rice. That is one of
the reasons why brown rice is milled further to create a more visually appealing
white rice.
The brown rice runs through two huller machines that remove the outer bran layers
from the grain. With the grains pressed against the inner wall of the huller and a
spinning core, the bran layers are rubbed off. The core and inner wall move closer
for the second hulling, ensuring removal of all bran layers.
The now light-colored grain is cooled and polished by a brush machine.
The smooth white rice is conveyed to a brewer's reel, where over a wire mesh
screen broken kernels are sifted out. Oftentimes, the polished white rice is then
coated with glucose to increase luster.
Wheat (Triticum aestivum)
Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grainwhich is a
worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the
genus Triticum; the most widely grown is common wheat (T. aestivum).
ORIGIN
Archaeological analysis of wild emmer indicates that it was first cultivated in the
southern Wheat (Triticum sp.) is a cereal grain originally from the Levant region of
the near East and Ethiopian Highlands. It is now cultivated worldwide.
9600 BCE. Genetic analysis of wild einkorn Triticum monoccum wheat suggests that it
was first grown in the Karacadag Mountains in southeastern Turkey. Dated
archeological remains of einkorn wheat in settlement sites near this region,
including those at Abu Hureyrain Syria, suggest the domestication of einkorn near
the Karacadag Mountain Range.
By 3000 BCE, wheat had reached the British Isles and Scandinavia. A millennium
later it reached China.
The cultivation of emmer reached Greece, Cyprus and Indian subcontinent by
6500 BC, Egypt shortly after 6000 BCE, and Germany and Spain by 5000 BC.
From Asia, wheat continued to spread across Europe. In the British Isles, wheat straw
(thatch) was used for roofing in the Bronze Age, and was in common use until the
late 19th century.
The distribution of the wild
wheats and grasses, believed to be
the progenitors of the cultivated
wheats, supports the belief that
wheat originated in southeastern
Asia. Some species were cultivated
in Greece, Persia, Turkey, and
Egypt in prehistoric times while
the cultivation of other species
may be of more recent origin. In
India, evidences from Mohen-Jo-
Daro excavations, indicate that
wheat was cultivated there more
than 5000 years ago.
MORPHOLOGY
The plant is made up of a root and shoot system. Two types of roots are found, the
seminal roots and the nodal roots (adventitious or crown roots), which arise from
the lower nodes of the shoot. The shoot is made up of a series of repeating units or
phytomers, each potentially having a node, a leaf, an elongated internode and a bud
in the axil of the leaf
ROOTS
The wheat plant has two types of roots, the seminal
(seed) roots and roots that initiate after germination,
the nodal (crown or adventitious) roots.
LEAVES
The leaf is divided at the ligule into a cylindrical
sheath and the flat blade or lamina. The sheath is
tubular at the base, but nearer to the blade it is split
and the margins overlap. The lamina has a fairly
well-marked midrib, along which runs the major
vascular bundle of the leaf.
TILLERING
The wheat plant has the ability to tiller, i.e. to produce lateral branches. At the end of
the vegetative phase of development, the plant will consist of, in addition to the main
shoot, a number of tillers.
THE EAR
As it approaches anthesis, the ear is completely formed and the pollen grains and
carpel are fully developed. After anthesis, the florets open, pollen is released and
the carpels are pollinated. The stamens and lodicules, their role fulfilled, die and
shrivel, and further growth and development takes place in the carpels, the
developing grains.
Uses of Wheat
Wheat is milled to produce flour which is used to make a variety of products
Wheat contains a protein called gluten which is necessary for the basic structure in
forming the dough system for bread, rolls and other baked goods. bread, cookies,
cakes, pies, pastries, cereals, crackers, pasta, flour tortillas and noodles are all made
from wheat flour.
CULTIVATION AND PROCESSING
Land Preparation:
The wheat crop requires a well-pulverized but compact seed bed for good and
uniform germination. Three or four ploughings in the summer, repeated harrowing
in the rainy season, followed by three or four cultivations and planking immediately
before sowing produce a good, firm seed bed for the dry crop on alluvial soils.
Sowing:
a)Sowing time:
Based on above temperature requirement it has been found that for indigenous
wheat last week of October, for long duration dwarf varieties like Kalyansona,
Arjun, etc. first fortnight of November and for short duration dwarf wheats like
Sonalika, Raj 821 etc. second fortnight is the best sowing time. Under exceptionally
late sown condition it may be delayed to latest by 1 st week of December beyond
which if area is very small transplanting may be practiced.
b) Seed rate:
Generally, a seed rate of 100 kg/ha has been found to be sufficient for most of the
varieties like Kalyan Sona, Arjun, Janak, etc.which have moderate tillering and
medium sized grains. But a higher seed rate of 125 kg/ha is desirable for late sown
wheat and normal sown for varieties like Sonalika, Raj 821 etc. which have bold
grains and shy tillering habits.
c) Spacing: :
For irrigated, timely sown wheat, a row spacing of 15 to 22.5 cm is followed, but 22.5
cm between the rows is considered to be the optimum spacing. Under irrigated late-
sown conditions, a row spacing of 15-18 cm is the optimum. For dwarf wheats, the
planting depth should be between 5 and 6 cm. Planting beyond this depth results in
a poor stand. In the case of conventional tall varieties, the depth of sowing may be 8
or 9 cm.
d) Seed treatment:
The seed of loose smut-susceptible varieties should be given solar or hot-water
treatment. If the wheat seed is used only for sowing, and not for human
consumption or for feeding cattle, it can be treated with Vitavax.
Application of Mannures and Fertilizer
It is desirable that 2 to 3 tonnes of farmyard manure per hectare or some other
organic matter is applied 5 or 6 weeks before sowing. The fertilizer requirement of
the irrigated wheat crop are as follows:
With assured fertilizer supply:
Nitrogen (N) @8- - 120 kg/ha
Phosphorus (P2O5) @ 40- 60 kg/ha
Potash (K2O) @ 40 kg/ha.
Under fertilizer constraints:
N @ 60-80 kg/ha
P2O5 @ 30-40 kg/ha
K2O @ 20-25 kg/ha.
Irrigation:
The high yielding wheat varieties should be given five to six irrigations at their
critical growth stages viz. Crown root initiation, tillering, jointing, flowering, milk
and dough which come at 21-25 days after sowing (DAS), 45-60 DAS, 60-70 DAS, 90-
95 DAS, 100-105 DAS and 120-125 DAS respectively. Off these irrigation at CRI stage
is most important.
Harvesting and Storage:
a) Harvesting:
The rain-fed crop reaches the harvest stage much earlier than the irrigated crop. The
crop is harvested when the grains become hard and the straw becomes dry and
brittle.The harvesting is mostly done by sickle. The crop is threshed by treading with
cattle on the threshing-flour or by power driven thresher.
b) Yield: The national average yield of wheat grain is about 12 to 13.8 quintals per
hectare.
c) Storage:
The grains should be thoroughly dried before storage. The storage life of the grain is
closely related to its moisture content. Grains with less than 10 percent moisture
store well. The storage pits, bins or godowns should be moisture-proof and should
be fumigated to keep down the stored – grain pests including rats. Zinc phosphide is
very effective against rats.
