Effect of Gypsum & Bio-compost Applications on Relative Water Content in Rice Genotypes under Sodic Soil

Abstract

Sodic soils have immense productivity potential, if managed through proper technology interventions. Bio-compost is prepared by composting pressmud and gypsum received from waste material of mining can be used to reclaim sodic soils. Field experiments were conducted during the June-November of 2018 and 2019 at the ICAR - Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Sub Regional Station, Pusa (Samastipur), Bihar. Experiment was laid out in split-plot design with four treatments i.e. T1(Control plots), T2 (Gypsum@100% G.R. amended plots), T3(Gypsum @ 50% G.R.+ Bio-compost @ 2.5 tha-1 amended plots), and T4(Biocompost @ 5.0 tha-1 amended plots) in main plots and ten rice genotypes G1(Suwasini), G2(Rajendra Bhagwati), G3(Boro-3), G4(Rajendra Neelam), G5(CSR-30), G6(CSR-36), G7(CR-3884-244-8-5-6-1-1), G8(CR-2851-SB-1-2-B-1), G9(CSR-27), and G10 (Pusa-44) in sub plots and replicated thrice. The promising results reveal that the mean of leaf relative water content at pre-flowering stage in the salt-tolerant genotypes ranged from 69.47 % to 82.20 % during 2018 and 69.52 % to 82.24 % during 2019. The mean of leaf relative water content at grain filling stage in all the genotypes varied between 77.55 % to 85.45 % during 2018 and 75.49 % to 85.16 % during 2019. Soil amendments and genotypes interaction was found significantly in both the years at grain filling stage.