Mechanized crop establishment for commercial inbred seed production in relation to seed purity
2017
Rico, E.P. Jr. | Ramos, R.C. | Brena, S.R.
Despite the progress of mechanized rice production in neighboring Asian countries, there is a need to develop standard protocol on mechanization in commercial inbred rice seed production. Moreover, the protocol to be developed from transplanting to drying should maintain the overall seed quality even after prolonged seed storage. In the formulation of the draft guidelines for mechanization, PhilRice staff and BPI-NSQCS inspectors worked very closely from land preparation until harvesting to draft field inspection guidelines on mechanized planting for commercial inbred rice seed production. Three seedling establishment methods were implemented, mechanical transplanter, precision seeder and manual transplanting. Each method was replicated thrice with a plot size of 12m x 47m. For land preparation, 2 rota vation, 2 narrowing, 1 levelling and 1 final leveling was done. For mechanical transplanter seeding rate of 80g per tray and media combination of 1:1:3 (soil:CRH and organic amendments) was followed. Field inspection was jointly done by PhilRice staff and designated seed analyst from BPI-NSQCS. An area of 1m x 25m was used for field inspection in 3 replicates. The first inspection was done at 20 days after transplanting; followed by the next inspection at maximum tillering; at the on-set of flowering and final inspection at two weeks before harvest. An average of 3 seedlings per hill was dispensed by mechanical transplanter. For precision seeder an average of 81 seedling emergence per 1 sqm at 14 days after souring was observed. Percentage field purity of the seed during final inspection was at 99.57%, 99.68% and 96.81% for manual, mechanical and precision seeder, respectively. Based on the result of seed certification by NSQCS, seed produced using precision seeder did not pass as certified seed. A multi-location demo at PhilRice branches will be established next season.
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