LAUSR

BACKGROUND While ratoon rice has been increasingly practiced by farmers recently in China, on-farm performance in grain quality of main and ratoon crops in mechanized rice ratooning system are less studied and remain poorly understood. Therefore, a multi-location on-farm survey was conducted to collect rice grain samples from farmers' fields to determine grain quality of main and ratoon crops of ratoon rice at 12 locations across Hubei Province, central China in 2016. RESULTS On average, milled and head rice percentage in ratoon crop was 70.2% and 65.7%, which were significantly higher than those in main crop. Whereas, chalky grain percentage and grain chalkiness in ratoon crop (10.1% and 2.8%, respectively) were significantly lower than those in main crop (36.6% and 14.2%, respectively). The differences in these quality traits between two crops were consistent at all locations. Averaged across 12 locations, score of translucency and gel consistency were significantly lower but amylose content and alkali spreading value were significantly higher in ratoon crop than in main crop, with the difference between two crops in gel consistency varied by locations. CONCLUSION Overall, grain quality especially milling and appearance quality of ratoon crop was superior to main crop in mechanized rice ratooning system. As a result, this study emphasizes the potential role of rice ratooning system in other regions with similar biophysical background producing high-quality rice. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.