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Performance of rice cultivars under different resource conservation techniques

C. Venkata Reddy1, R.K.Malik2 and Yadav Ashok3

1 Ph.D. Scholar, CCS Haryana Agricultural University (CCS HAU), Hisar, India, e-mail: chintav-reddy@yahoo.co.in
(Scientist, Agronomy, Agricultural Research Station, Maruteru under ANGR Agricultural University,
Hyderabad, India-presently under study leave)
2
Head (Agronomy) and Dean, Post Graduate Studies, CCS HAU, Hisar, India, e-mails: rkm13@hau.nic.in
3
Scientist (Weed Science), CCS HAU, Hisar, e-mail: aky4@hau.nic.in

Abstract

In large parts of India and in many South Asian countries, rice is traditionally being grown by transplanting in puddled fields. Puddling reduces water losses through percolation besides being very effective in controlling weeds. But it has resulted in reduced soil fertility and increased soil compaction. Therefore, the present experiment was conducted to study the feasibility of other planting techniques. It was carried out in a farmer’s field in Haryana in India during kharif 2002 and 2003. The study examined 3 factors – Variety (HKR 126 and IR 64), Tillage (Puddled and Zero tilled) and seeding method (Transplanted and Broadcast of sprouted seed). The grain yield of HKR 126 (6.24 t/ha) was significantly higher than IR 64 (5.75 t/ha). The higher yield in HKR 126 was attributed to more effective tillers and, depending on year, more filled grain and larger grain weight. Overall, Transplanting produced significantly higher yields (6.54 t/ha) than Broadcasting sprouted seed (5.44 t/ha). However, Tillage had no significant effect (Puddled 6.00 t/ha and Zero tilled 5.99 t/ha). Although the Transplanted treatments had fewer tillers/m2 (300) than Broadcast (332), it produced a higher yield because it had more grains in the panicle (148 compared with 122) and larger grains (27 g compared with 25g).

Media summary

The grain yield of rice cultivar HKR-126 was significantly better than IR-64. However, zero tillage and puddling produced similar grain yield but the transplanted treatments were superior to the direct broadcast of sprouted seed treatments.

Key words

Cultivars, puddling, transplanting, broadcasting, zero-tillage.

Introduction

In India, rice is grown over an area of 43 m ha with total production of 87 m tons amounting 41.8 percent of total food grain (Singh, 2001). Presently, in Haryana the area, production and productivity of rice are around 1083 thousand ha, 2583 thousand tones and 2385 kg/ha, respectively. However, rice yield has reached a plateau in the irrigated ecosystem.

In most of the south asia, common practice of establishing rice in the rice-wheat system is puddling. puddling helps in reducing water losses through percolation and controlling weeds in rice fields (adachi 1992, singh et al., 1995). but besides being costly, cumbersome and time consuming, it results in degradation of soil and other natural resources and subsequently poses difficulties in seedbed preparation for succeeding wheat crop in rotation. it also promotes the formation of a plough pan, which affects rooting depth in the next crop. in recent years, the migration of rural labour to the industrial sector, especially in india, has led to the non-availability of labour for transplanting at the appropriate time, resulting in a yield reduction. this method also results in drudgery among women workers (budhar and tamilselvan, 2001). Rice can also be established by direct seeding or by wet seeding. direct seeding of rice is an attractive alternative to puddle transplanted rice (gupta et al., 2003). one of the transformations that is taking place in the cultivation of wheat in rice-wheat cropping system is the evolution of zero-tillage technology. there is a significant paradigm shift from conventional tillage to zero-tillage, which has been made possible through farmers participatory research. more research is needed on resource conservation technologies including surface seeding and zero-tillage in both rice and wheat (malik et al., 2000). zero-tillage establishment is used widely for many crops around the world and this technology has potential to allow savings in time, energy, water and labour during rice establishment (piggin et al., 2002). hence, to get rid of puddling or transplanting or both, efforts are required to explore the possibilities of other crop establishment techniques in rice like direct seeding under puddled or zero till situation or transplanting under zero till or unpuddled conditions.

Methods

To evaluate the performance of two rice cultivars under four crop establishment techniques/resource conservation techniques (RCT’s), an experiment was conducted during kharif seasons of year 2002 and 2003 represented the traditionally rice wheat cropping area of the state. The soil of the experimental field was clay loam in texture, medium in fertility and slightly alkaline in reaction (pH-8.2). The experiment comprising two rice cultivars (IR-64 and HKR-126) and four crop establishment techniques making eight treatment combinations viz., puddled-transplant-IR-64, puddled-transplant-HKR-126, puddled-broadcast (sprouted seed)-IR-64, puddle-broadcast (sprouted seed)- HKR-126, zero till-transplant-IR-64, zero till-transplant-HKR-126, zero till-broadcast (sprouted seed)-IR-64 and zero till-broadcast (sprouted seed)-HKR-126. The treatments were laid out in randomized block design, replicated thrice. The plot size under each treatment was kept relatively large (20mX33.33m). Under puddled condition the plots after wheat harvest were subjected to dry harrowing thrice and flooded with water (15cm) before subjecting to puddling. Puddling was accomplished with two harrowings followed by one cultivator and planking with tractor in the standing water. Under zero-tillage, the respective plots after wheat harvest were not subjected to any ploughing, however, pre-germinated weeds were knocked down by spraying glyphosate (Round up@ 1.5% solution) 10 days before transplanting or broadcasting of sprouted seeds. For raising nursery of both varieties, sprouted seeds were sown in small part of the field on 14th June 2002 & 14th June 2003. The sprouted seeds were broadcast at 40 kg/ha on 14th June 2002 and 14th June 2003 in the plots under puddled and zero tillage treatments. For transplanting, one month old seedlings from a nursery were used. Otherwise, the crop was raised using recommended practices.

Results

The yield attributes and grain yield in kharif 2002 and 2003 for the two rice cultivars and four crop establishment techniques are shown in Table 1. The grain yield of rice cultivar HKR126 (6.07 and 6.41 t/ha in 2002 and 2003 respectively) was significantly higher than IR64 (5.59 and 5.90 t/ha). This might be due to significantly higher number of effective tillers (316 and 328), filled grains per panicle [127 (non-significant), 172], 1000 grain weight (25.2 and 28.5 (NS) g) compared to IR64. However, the panicle length was statistically longer in IR64 than HKR126 in 2002 but was similar in both varieties during the second year.

Table 1:mean performance of rice cultivars under different resource conservation techniques

Treatment

Effective tillers/m2

Panicle length
(cms)

Filled grain/panicle (NOS)

Unfilled grain/panicle (NOS)

1000 grain weight (g)

Grain yield t/ha

 

2002

2003

2002

2003

2002

2003

2002

2003

2002

2003

2002

2003

Variety

IR-64

304

316

26.2

27.7

117

123

13

15

23.9

27.0

5.59

5.90

HKR-126

316

328

25.3

27.7

127

172

13

21

25.2

28.3

6.07

6.41

C.D. (p=0.05)

11

11

0.7

NS

NS

11

NS

3.5

1.2

NS

0.22

0.27

Crop establishment techniques

Puddled-Transplant

291

306

26.3

29.5

133

159

16

24

25.0

28.6

6.33

6.72

Puddled-Broadcast (sprouted seed)

329

341

25.2

26.4

109

140

11

17

24.3

26.7

5.33

5.60

Zero till-Transplant

295

307

25.9

28.4

138

161

10

13

26.0

28.8

6.36

6.74

Zero-till-Broadcast (sprouted seed)

325

334

25.9

26.6

108

130

15

18

23.3

26.5

5.29

5.56

C.D. (p=0.05)

16

16

NS

1.0

14

15

3.4

5.0

1.7

1.8

0.31

0.38

Among different crop establishment techniques, the number of effective tillers under puddled-transplant (291, 306) and zero till transplant (295, 307) were similar but each was statistically lower than both puddled-broadcast (329, 341) and zero till-broadcast (325, 334). However, panicle length of IR 64 (26.2 cm) was higher than HKR126 (25.3cm) in 2002 but it was similar in both varieties during the second year. Filled grains/panicle were highest under zero till- transplant (138, 161) in both years and less under zero till-broadcast (108, 130). There were more unfilled grains under puddle-transplant than in zero till-transplant during both years. The grain yield under zero till-transplant (6.36 and 6.74 t/ha) was similar to puddled-transplant (6.33 and 6.72 t/ha) but was significantly more than both puddled-broadcast (5.33 and 5.60 t/ha) and zero till broadcast (5.29 and 5.56 t/ha), which were also similar to each other.

Acknowledgement

Funds provided by aciar (Australia), NATP, and CCSHAU allowed this study to be carried out.

References

Adachi, K. 1992. Effect of puddling on rice physical: softness of puddled soil on percolation. In Proc. Int. Workshop of soil and water engineering for paddy field management. Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, 28-30 Jan. 1992 pp: 220-231.

Budhar, M.N. and Tamilselvan, N. 2001. Evaluation of stand establishment techniques in low land rice. International Rice Research Notes. 26: 2 P: 72-73.

Gupta, R.K., R.K. Naresh, P.R. Hobbs, Z. Jiaguo and J.K. Ladha. 2003. Sustainability of Post-Green Revolution agriculture. The rice-wheat cropping systems of the Indo-Gangetic Plains and China, p. 1-26. In J.K. Ladha et al. (ed.). Improving the productivity and sustainability of rice-wheat systems: Issues and impacts. ASA Spec. Publ. 65. ASA, CSSA, SSSA, Madison, W.I.

Malik, R.K.; Mehla, R.S. and Singh, B.K. 2000. Conservation tillage technologies and faremrs participatory research, extension approaches in Haryana-A case study. Rice wheat Consortium Paper Series 14, New Delhi, India, p: 31-45.

Piggin, C.M.; Garcia, C.O. and Janiya, J.D. 2002. Establishment of irrigated rice under zero and conventional of irrigated rice under zero and conventional tillage systems in the Philippines. In Proc. Int. Workshop on herbicide resistance management and zero tillage in rice-wheat system, March 4-6, 2002, Hisar, India, p: 190-195.

Singh, P. 2001. New Paradigms in Agricultural Research for sustaining food security. Platinum Jubille Lecture, 88th session of ISC, January 3-7, IARI, New Delhi.

Singh, R., Gajri, P.R., Gill, K.S. and Khera, R. 1995. Puddling intensity and nitrogen use efficiency of rice (Oryza sativa) in a sandy loam soil of Punjab. Indian J. Agri. 54: 65(10): 749-751.

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