Physical characteristics and nutritional quality of salt tolerant rice genotypes

Rice is recently introduced in Ethiopia, rice production is expanding very fast. However, the grain quality of the high yielding varieties in the country is not well characterized. The present study was carried out to evaluate some important physical characteristics and nutritional qualities of 15 rice genotypes. The experiment was conducted at Bahirdar University food and nutrition laboratory from July to August, 2015.  AT 401, IR 66946 and IR 73055 had significantly the longest kernel. Most of the genotypes had bold type of appearance which is a good physical characteristic. The 1000 kernel weight was good in most of the genotypes except for IR 72048 and IR 72593. IR 55179, IR 59418 and IR 71810 had the highest bulk density and were round shaped. The chalkiness was minimum in genotypes IR 70023 (5.63%), IR 71991 (11.27%) and IR 72048 (11.91%). The protein and fiber content was higher in AT 401, IR 70023 and IR 71901. IR 29 was superior in fat content. The correlation between the physical and nutritional characteristics was very minimum which indicates the independency of the two. Although the nutritional and physical characters are within the acceptable range, there would be a chance for improvement of both quality since it contributes through selection and crossing.   Key words: kernel, genotype, physical characteristics, nutrition content.