Response of Different Establishment Method on Yield Evaluation of Rice (Oryza Sativa L.) Under Rice-Wheat Cropping System, India

Introduction

Rice is one of the principle and immensely cultivated crop in tropical and sub-tropical regions in India as well as in the world as it is staple food for more than 60% of the world’s population. Among the cereals total production of rice in India is 115.63 million tones in 2019-2020 (Anonymous)¹. India holds second rank after China in the world and its share is about 21.2% in the world during 2015. Traditional method of transplanting of rice in puddle soil is tedious method, which has high water requirement for raising the nursery as well as puddling for bed preparation during the transplanting. Puddling form the thick layer on the upper layer of the soil and minimize the percolation losses but affect the physical condition of soil and wastage of time. The conventional rice planting method is transplanting which involves seedling preparation in nurseries and replanting in puddled soils (Chen)⁴. Puddling is a common process by which cultivating soil in 2.5 to 5.0 cm standing water and finally bed prepared for transplanting (Bouman and Tuong)³. In most of the Asian countries transplanting is widely practiced (Mabbayad and Obordo)¹⁵. The benefit of the conventional puddledrice increased nutrient availability in soil basically iron, zinc and phosphorous and also reduce the weed population (Surendra)²¹. The puddled soil create anaerobic conditions to increase nutrient availability (Sanchez)²⁰.

Direct seeded rice (DSR) through using zero-till drill is one of the alternate methods of rice sowing without puddling of the soil. This is easiest method of sowing where no rising of the seedling required. This method save water and minimize cost of production and maintain physical condition of soil. In this method seed should be sown by using tractor drawn zero-till drill. This system sowed seed properly without the wastage of time and money in raising seedling. This enhances the productivity of rice with minimum water requirement as compared to traditional rice transplanting. Direct seeding of rice and transplanting are the two common methods of rice establishment (Kumar¹¹; Kumar¹²). Conventional transplanting of the aged seedlings into puddled soil is easy and most used method by the majority of farmers of Asian countries. Traditional method of transplanting is more strenuous, time consuming and higher cost of production than DSR (Hashimoto)⁹. The area under traditional rice in world is going to decrease due to limitation of water and labour therefore, alternate method of transplanting should be promoted for enhancing the crop and water productivity (Farooq⁷; Farooq ⁸, Datta⁶). Wet DSR is primarily done under labour shortage situation and is currently practiced in Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Sri Lanka (Pandey and Velasco)¹⁷. Farmers of many Asian countries were adopting DSR technology over conventional puddle transplanting since DSR method of rice establishment requires less labour, time, drudgery and cultivation cost (Bhushan²; Pandey and Velasco¹⁷). Rice can be also sown by broadcasting in which dry seed is used for sowing without the definite row arrangement. Drum seeder is also one of the noble practices for sowing of rice by using dry and wet sprouted seed. In this method seed should be filled in drum and moved manually in to the puddle field. This is method of the line sowing where mortality rates is very low by using sprouted seeds in drum seeder. System of rice intensification (SRI) is another method of rice transplanting which requires less water for preparation of nursery and seed bed for transplanting. This method is less time consuming since 12 days old seedling is used for planting and low transplanting shocks. This is method of alternate wetting and drying in rice production system also known aerobic rice system of transplanting.

Figure 1: Different Crop Estblishment Techniques of Rice. (Oryza Sativa L.) Click here to view Figure

Method of establishment is one of the cultural practices, which influences the rice crop through its effect on growth and development (Kumar)¹³. Keeping these facts in view, present investigation/ on farm trials (OFT) was under taken to study the establishment methods on yield evaluation of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) under rice- wheat cropping system, India as shown in Figure 1.

Material  and Method

Site of Experiment

A field experiment{On farm Trial (OFT)} was conducted in village, Halsi, Lakhisarai, under the supervision of  ICAR-Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Lakhisarai, Bihar in 2012-13 and 2013-14 on “Response of different establishment method on yield evaluation of rice (Oryza sativa L.) under rice-wheat cropping system, India.

Design of Experiment and Treatments

The experiment/ on farm trial was laid out in Randomized Block Design with four replications (No. of farmers), comprised of six treatment viz., T₁– Transplanted rice (Farmers Practices), T₂– System of rice intensification (SRI) square transplanted, T₃– DSR- Zero-tillage (dry seedings), T₄– Direct seeded rice (DSR)- Broadcasting (dry seeding), T₅– DSR- Drum seeded (dry seeding), T₆– DSR- wet seeded (sprouted seedings).

Good Agronomic/ Agricultural Practices (GAP)

Genotype of rice namely Rajendra Mansuri-1 (RM-1) was sown/ transplanted by different methods during kharif season in the second fortnight of May and harvested in the second fortnight of October. In system of rice intensification (SRI), 12 days old seedlings were transplanted with keeping the distance of 25cm x 25 cm. Under the manual transplanting, 21- 24 days old seedling were used for transplanting keeping the distance 20cm x 15 cm. For drum seeding the pre germinated seeds were sown by using eight row paddy drum seeder in a puddled soil and soaked seeds were sown for wet seeding method. For DSR-Zero-tillage the dry seeds were sown by using zero-till drill in a moist unploughed soil while a dry seed is used for broadcasting in dry ploughed soil under DSR-Broadcasting. Recommended dose of FYM @ 10 tones ha^-1 was applied in the field in the month of May before sowing of seeds and before monsoon. Recommended dose of fertilizer was applied in the form of N, P₂O₅ and K₂O @ 120 kg, 60 kg and 60 kg ha^-1 through Urea, Di-ammonium phosphate and Muriate of potash, respectively. Various intercultural operations and plant protection measures were adopted for the crop timely.

Soil Status of Experiment

Texture of the soil at the experiment site was clay loam and 7.60 pH value of the soil was recorded. The value of various soil properties present in the experiment fields were 237.6 kg ha^-1 available N, 11.2 kg ha^-1 P₂O₅ and 149.20 kg ha^-1 K₂O. The percentage of available organic matter present in the soil was 0.68%.

Data Analysis       

Observations on growth and yield attributing were recorded at different stage and at harvest. The grain and straw yield were recorded and economics was worked out. The economics was computed by using the prevalent prices of inputs and outputs. To test the significance difference, the trial data collected and analysed with the procedure described by (Cochran and Cox)⁵ and adopted by Cheema and Singh (1991) in statistical package CPCS 1.

Results and Discussion

Growth and Yield Attributing Characters   

The growth and yield attributing character of rice viz., plant height, number of leaves m^-2, total leaf area, number of tillers m^-2 and all others showed significant differences at harvesting stage due to crop establishment techniques in rice. Among the various crop establishment methods that were adopted during the research, system of rice intensification system of planting recorded significantly the highest plant height, number of effective tillers, leaf area index, Nos. of filled grain per panicle and test weight (Table 1). The maximum plant height (94.20 cm), number of effective tillers m^-2 (485), leaf area index (5.31), numbers of filled grains per panicle (195) and test weight (25.90 g) were recorded under SRI planting but these parameters were on par with transplanted rice. The conformity of similar findings of growth and yield attributing parameters were reported by (Kumar)¹³. Transplanting of young age seedlings in system of rice intensification method of transplanting might have established quick and early in the field force be resulted to higher growth and yield attributing characters (Krishna)¹⁰. Transplanted rice higher yield and yield attributing characters over DSR- broadcasting, DSR- Zero-tillage and DSR- drum seeder DSR- wet seeded. Similar result was also reported by (Prasad)¹⁸. Transplanting method significantly increased the growth and yield attributes over drum seeding of sprouted seeds under puddle condition (Kumar)¹⁴. Significant increase in plant height, number of effective tillers, LAI, number of filled grains per panicle and test weightwere observed under DSR-drum seeded and DSR-Zero-tillage of planting as compared to DSR-wet seeded and DSR- broadcasting establishment methods.

Table 1: Establishment Methods of Rice on Growth and Yield Attributes (Pooled Data of Two Year).

Table 2 : Establishment Methods on Rice Yield ( kg ha^-1) and Economics (Rs ha^-1) (Pooled Data of Two Years).

Economics

It is visible from the Table 2 that among the different planting methods system of rice intensification shows highest gross return (Rs. 87,609 ha^-1) and net return (Rs. 50409 ha^-1) but the net return were found at par with puddled transplanting (Rs. 48,077 ha^-1) and DSR- zero-tillage (Rs. 47,384 ha^-1 ). This was might be due to due to higher grain yield, import better return for every rupee charges in the form of cost of cultivation. Table 2 & Fig 3&4 shows that DSR- zero-tillage to be the most beneficial treatment in terms of higher return and benefit cost ratio (2.56) among the all crop establishment method. This efficacy may be due to lower cost of cultivation and on account of higher grain yield. The lowest returns (Rs. 44,505 ha^-1) were gated under DSR- wet seeding (sprouted) which was the result of lowest grain yield under the different establishment methods. The highest net monetary returns and benefit cost ratio over dry seeding and puddle sowing of sprouted seeds (Prasad)¹⁸. Highest net income (Rs 23413 ha^-1) and B: C ratio (1.34) of hybrid rice were recorded under transplanting over drum seeding of sprouted seeds under puddle condition (Kumar)¹⁴. Maximum benefit cost ratio (1.34) was obtained from treatment direct seeded rice (DSR) (Kumar)¹². The result is in close conformity to those of (Netam)¹⁶.

Conclusions             

It is concluded that among the establishment methods system of rice intensification (SRI) listed higher growth, yield attributes, grain and straw yield. This was followed by puddled transplanted rice, DSR- drum seeder (sprouted seed) and DSR- zero-tillage. DSR- zero-tillage is a viable, long-lasting and appropriate substitute to puddled transplanted rice, DSR- drum seeder and SRI which skips nursery and transplanting and to be the most profitable methods which also minimize cost of production.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Acknowledgement

Authors express their gratitude to Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi mandated on farm trials and for providing fund and research facility for present study. Secondly, thankful to CSISA, Supervisor Sri Abhay Kumar for better support for trial at farmers field.

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