Rice Cooking Quality and Physico-Chemical Characteristics: a Comparative Analysis of Selected Local and Newly Introduced Rice Varieties in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

The Choice of rice varieties by farmers and consumers and the rate at which farmers in Ebonyi state go for new rice varieties at the expense of indigenous varieties have become a source of worry to scientists in Nigeria. We assessed the cooking quality and physico-chemical characteristics of 15 selected indigenous and five newly introduced hybrid rice varieties grown in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Significant variation (P<0.05) was detected among the 20 rice varieties for all the traits evaluated. The results showed that all the five newly introduced hybrid rice varieties do not swell appreciably during cooking. The grains of Cv.“China” had the highest elongation values of 3.2 ± 0.00 mm. “E4197” has the best physical appearance but easily dissolves in water during cooking. Most of the physico-chemical characteristic such as amylose, amylopectin, gel consistency and gelatinization temperature were significantly correlated (positively or negatively) with some of the cooking quality traits (elongation during cooking, solids in cooking water and optimum cooking time), indicating that efforts aimed at selecting rice varieties with improved cooking quality traits would warrant a consideration of the physico-chemical attributes of the rice grain. The overall cooking quality and physico-chemical attributes of some of the indigenous rice varieties were even relatively better than the newly introduced hybrid varieties. Farmers should, therefore, be critical in accepting new varieties that may not be comparably outstanding in cooking quality and physico-chemical characteristics, in order to preserve the integrity of the all-cherished indigenous rice varieties of Ebonyi State, Nigeria.