Characterization of a botanical fungicide from Thai origin and its efficiency in rice production (PDF)

High water requirement and increasing labor costs are the major problems of the traditional ice production system. Direct seed rice production, growing rice without standing water, can be an attractive alternative. However, seedling attacking by fungi results in poor emergence and seedling establishment is the main hindrance in the adoption of this cultural practice. An attempt to improve the performance of direct seed rice, which influences on rice grain nutritional value and physicochemical properties by seed coating applications, was made in this study. Seeds were treated with various substances i.e. captan (CA), only chitosan-lignosulphonate polymer (CL) and eugenol incorporated into chitosanlignosulphonate polymer (E+CL). Untreated seeds were used as control (CO). The results of growing in seasons 2005 and 2006 indicated that biological coating treatments, CL and E+CL improved harvested grain qualities. However, CA treatment impaired products qualities more than CO did. Furthermore, the pasting properties of harvested rice grains were not affected by seed treatment variants. On the other hand, the climatic environment was a major factor which influenced the product qualities. The results confirm that E+CL may be a potential seed coating substance which can improve direct seed rice production system.