Physical quality of grains benefited from rice cultivars produced at different levels of fertilization

Rice is one of the most cultivated cereals in the world and the increase in crop yield is associated with cultivars and levels of soil fertilization, and may suffer changes in grain quality after processing. The objective of this work was to evaluate the physical quality of grains of rice benefited as polished and integral of cultivars IR 424 RI and IR 431 CL as a function of different levels of fertilization. After the harvest, the grains were subjected to the debarking and polishing processes. Quality analysis was performed according to the physical classification of rice. The cultivar IR 424 RI obtained higher values of yellow, burned and plastered grains, and in the cultivar IR 431 LC more broken, chopped and stained grains were observed. The average yield of polished rice of cultivar IR 431 CL was 44.54% and cultivar IR 424 RI was 56.80%. Meanwhile, the average yield of whole rice of cultivar IR 431 CL was 65.02% and cultivar IR 424 RI was 73.08%. The increase in the fertilization levels of the rice influenced positively on the yield of whole grains, but did not present satisfactory results regarding the physical quality.