Rice plays a great role in the world’s daily consumption of food and beverages throughout human history specifically in Asia where about ninety (90) percent of all rice is grown today and have more than 200 million rice farms, most of which smaller than one hectare. Rice has been the primary and the most basic nourishment for Asians for it is one of the simplest and cheapest to cook among all other delicacies. It feeds more than half of the world’s population and it has also estimated that the average rice consumption exceeds 100kg per person per year in many Asian countries. Many people depend on rice cultivation as their source of livelihood income and it takes between 90 and 200 days for a rice crop to mature. The average growth rate of rice yield was 3.68% per year in the early 1980’s, but it has decreased to 0.74% per year in the late 1990’s.
For every country’s objective is being able to feed its subjects, most of the country’s major and most consumed food would be rice. Ever since the early 1960s, rice must have satisfactory produce that would be enough for the population of that country producing enough quantity to feed the populace. The government did and has intervened on various degrees- the marketplace, affecting the supply chain consisting of the import and the demand spectrum. Yet again, sufficiency has remained difficult to achieve.Production of rice in the Philippines rose from a 5 million tons in 1970 up to an astonishing amount of 16 million tons that threefold the production in 2008 with a 44% increase on the area that were harvested.
In accordance to this development, it was made possible with the use of Green Revolution’s seed-fertilizer technology and the access to irrigation facilities. The results given with this doubled the harvested amount per hectare in the same period. Rice is one of the most grown crops in the country, as about 30% of the total harvests in agriculture comes from rice. Thirty percent of the population majorly spends their wages on food, with eighteen percent (18%) of the money spent goes to purchasing rice.
Oryza sativa L. (Asian rice) falls into two major sub-species the Japonica and Indica variety (Sano & Morishima, 1992). Both differ in their physiological and biochemical characteristics, the Indica rice are mostly grown in tropical and subtropical environments located at lower global latitudes or altitudes, as for the variety of rice japonica it is grown in environments that has mild to warm summers and cool to cold winters at higher latitude or altitude (Yang et al 2014). Temperature in higher latitude and altitude from time to time is low, thus japonica rice seedling will prefer having these kinds of temperature and otherwise for Indica variety in which some were even planted in desert regions . Places in the East Asia particularly the northern part of China, Korea and Japan are the places said to house or sow Japonica rice and as for the Indica variety the places that plants these kinds we have the South and South-East Asia to mention.
Also, for these rice seeds to germinate its embryo in the initial stages of germination, temperature is a very important factor as it could determine the progress and stimulate the process towards completion. Germination of rice seed is the first and primary important process in which the plant undergoes, it is be affected by temperature, water potential and the soil quality (Tilebeni, Yousefpour, Farhadi, & Golpayegani, 2012).Too high of temperature is a major environmental stress that would limit the rice productivity both in tropical and subtropics or semi-tropical environments, the effects on productivity would be a reduce in grain weight and of course it’s given quality (Krishnan et al., 2011).According to the study, Germination of Rice Seed as Affected by Temperature, Fungicides, and Age by Jones, J.W. in 1926, rice seeds grow much more rapidly in water than in air, the opposite being true of the radicle and crown roots; that the frequent renewal of water had no sensible effect upon the development of the plumule, radicle, and roots, the same holding true for differences in. Researchers have shown that cardinal temperature (minimum or basic temperature) depend on species.There are quite a few factors that affects the grain quality. First is environmental conditions, which also includes the equipment and how they handle harvesting, the storage managing practices and finally, the transporting or moving procedures.
A soil is a place for plants to be nurtured that holds water and most supplies nutrients off the plant. It is a large reservoir with a lot of holding capability which then brings about nutrients and water to the plants. (Rogers et al 2014)For rice, we have this so-called paddy fields which houses and nurtures the plants till it is ready to be reaped. Farming in the Philippines follows a custom of irrigated lowland cultures through which the soil is soaked to make it easier for field ploughing. A germination investigation determines whether the seed has the potential to be planted or to be discarded. The level of germination in association with the seed’s potential provides a very good estimation of the possible field performance. While the speed of germination differs slightly across variations, seeds should absorb moisture within two days and produce a root and the first leaf within four days. At this point on forward, the seed is considered “germinated”.
The importance of germination is to determine if it is suitable for planting. When the seed is stored in traditional open systems, the germination rate of most rice seeds begins to decrease rapidly after six long months. By knowing the germination rate, farmers can adjust their planting rates to achieve their desired plant population in the field. Measuring germination samples for testing, it is best to take samples from different parts of the bag or container.In response to the factors considered by the Philippine’s local rice cultivators, the proponents developed a system that embodies the monitoring process over the seedlings then triggers the function for the automated sensors for upgraded germination process of rice seeds. A closed and controlled incubating system is created to keep the subjects well confined and out of harm’s reach. Temperature control simulation within the system is available to keep the threshold temperature intact all throughout the germination process.
To monitor the soil, quality, soil moisture is regulated by constantly enabling the irrigation, taking into account the water level required. According to a study about temperature-control simulation, to determine a preferred temperature of embryo growth of a certain seed, dormancy was broken faster in dry seed stored at 32 degree Celsius than at ambient temperature. This serves a solution to the problem for those raising their seedling outside, wherein, challenges will include climate change as it suggests unpredictable changes in factors that would affect the seed’s germination.
