The agricultural symbol of Sri Lanka for global recognition
“We explored the unseen nutritional world of Sri Lankan rice varieties with a positive impact of cultivation seasonal variation”
Every person needs to get a nutritional and healthy diet for their growth and development. But, in present nutritional properties or dietary requirements is being decreased from the main diet due to various anthropogenic activities.
Rice is the most consumed cereal grain of Sri Lankans and rice varieties grown in Sri Lankan soil have a global recognition owing to the nutritional composition in grains. Among all other nutritional constituents, minerals play a vital role in human health by controlling different types of biological functions.
The growth and production of rice are mainly affected by genetic and environmental factors including soil properties, biotic conditions, and cultural practices. In Sri Lanka, rice varieties are cultivated using two principal cultivation seasons: Maha and Yala. Maha season is effective from September to March while Yala season is effective from May to the end of August. With this variation of cultivation seasons, rice varieties are grown in different environmental conditions such as ambient temperature, relative humidity, photoperiod, solar radiation, total rainfall, and water availability. The fluctuation of these environmental conditions can change the soil properties in paddy fields. Then, it will affect to uptake of minerals and toxic heavy metals from soil to rice plants creating a variation of minerals composition of rice grains.
