Why farmers should not early transplant Paddy?

Amritsar, 12 June (Punjab Post Bureau)  – A study was conducted by the team led by Dr. Narpinder Singh Director Research and Professor Department of Food Science and Technology Guru Nanak Dev University to evaluate the difference in grain quality of the early and delayed transplanted paddy in the year 2011. The early transplantation was done on June 5 and 15 while delayed transplantation was done on June 25 and 5 July, 2011.

               This study was conducted under the aegis of JC Bose National Fellowship sanctioned to Dr. Narpinder Singh by the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India. This study revealed that as compared to late transplantation, the developing grains of early transplanted paddy experiences higher day- and night-time temperatures, which lead to an increase in breakage during milling, thus, lowering the head rice recovery and profit margins of millers. The higher breakage of rice in the early transplanted paddy is attributed to increase in chalkiness, which is due to lose organization of the grains structure. Chalky grains break easily during the milling process and paddy with higher proportion of these grains is not preferred by the millers.

              Furthermore, the polished rice with >2% chalky grain is also not accepted in most of the world markets. Contrary to the delayed transplanted rice, early transplanted rice has less of amylose that resulted into sticky texture after cooking. The cooked sticky rice does not mix well with curry, and hence, is not preferred by the consumers. The higher amylose, as observed in the late transplanted rice, is a desirable feature since it leads to increase in firmness and lower the stickiness in cooked rice. Both these features are preferred by both the industry and consumers. Hence, farmers are advice to transplant the paddy after 15 June as per the direction of the State Government.