Evaluation of Iron and Zinc Content in Rice Germplasms

The germplasm of 246 rice cultivars was analysed for iron and zinc contents using a Inductively Coupled Argon Plasma (ICP) at International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) Philippines. Iron contents ranged from 2.0 to 12.0, and zinc ranged from 10.0 to 33.0 (mg/kg), showing with the mean values of 4.3 and 22.8 (mg/kg), respectively. In genotypes tested, there was approximately a two-fold difference in iron and zinc concentrations, suggesting a genetic potential to increase these micronutrients in rice grain. A highly significant positive correlation (r 2 =0.503) was found between iron and zinc contents. Iron contents decreased drastically as polishing time increased, whereas zinc decreased only slightly. In the interaction between genotype and environment on iron contents, genotype (G), environment (E), and the G × E interactions accounted for 69%, 5% and 26% of the sums of squares, respectively. Indicating that genotype is would be the most significant factor for the to improve iron contents of rice in rice breeding, suggesting that therefore identifying genotypes with relatively stable performance across various environments is important as staple food crops.