Yield, Grain Quality and Fragrance of a Highland Fragrant Rice Landrace Variety, Bue Ner Moo

Abstract

Bue Ner Moo is a rice landrace variety grown by the Karen minority group living in the mountainous areas in northern Thailand. This rice variety has good eating quality and fragrance, which can be useful in breeding programs of fragrance rice including opportunity for developing GI (geographical indication) rice. However, landrace varieties generally show high level of genetic diversity which was the consequence of different selection criterion of local farmers. In the present study, nine Bue Ner Moo populations were collected from nine different farmers in Mae Wang district, Chiang Mai province, planted in the paddy field at two experimental locations, in the lowland at Chiang Mai University (coordinates 18°47’49.9”N, 98°57’35.9”E, elevation 330 m above mean sea level), and in the highland at Thung Luang village in Mae Wang district (coordinates 18°43’09.0”N, 98°34’02.7”E, elevation 800 m above mean sea level), in order to evaluate their yielding ability, grain quality and fragrance levels. We found significant difference between populations, between locations and interaction between these two factors in most of the studied traits. Average grain yield of nine Bue Ner Moo populations across two growing locations were varied between 410 to 560 kg/rai. While some populations showed stable yielding ability at both locations, some populations produced less grain yield when growing at highland. Similar results also observed in grain quality traits, some Bue Ner Moo populations showed higher alkali spreading value and percent head rice in the lowland, some were higher in the highland, while altitude effects not seen in others. Sensory test for the fragrance revealed that Bue Ner Moo have different fragrance levels ranging from not fragrant to high fragrant, which associated with the concentration of 2AP detected in each population. Moreover, 2AP concentration of most of Bue Ner Moo populations was significantly increased when growing at high altitude. Results of this study reveal the different response to altitude effects of different Bue Ner Moo populations, and provide useful information for breeding programs for developing a new fragrance rice variety with geographical indications.