Moisture transfer studies in seeds of some varieties of wheat

Moisutre transfer study in seeds of 13 cultivated wheat varieties belonging to Triticum aestivum and Triticum durum has been carried out at 30° C and 85% RH (Relative Humidity) for absorption and 25% RH for desorption. A nonlinear analysis was performed using modified Page equation(Average moisture ratio at a given time t, MR = exp (− (K t)ⁿ) for both absorption and desorption data without putting any upper or lower limit in the values of k and n (Product specific constants and these are not same for both drying and wetting conditions) and excellent fitting was observed. It was observed that the product specific constant k_a (absorption) in modified Page equation can be used as good index for segregation between rainfed and irrigated varieties.