Effect of Different Tillage and Nutrient Management Practices on Yield Attributes and Economics of Direct Seeded Rice

Abstract

An experiment was conducted in an ongoing trial at the Agronomical Research Farm (plot no. 5) of Tirhut College of Agriculture, Dholi (RPCAU, Pusa) during Kharif 2019. The experiment was laid out in ‘split-plot design’ with tillage practices under main plot treatments and nutrient management practices as subplot treatments. The results revealed that yield attributes such as no. of panicles per square metre and no. of grains per panicle were significantly influenced by both tillage and nutrient management practices with higher values of both the yield attributes were recorded in Zero tillage + Residue management (239; 122) among tillage practices and site specific nutrient management (SSNM) based on Nutrient expert® (228; 119) respectively among nutrient management treatments whereas, panicle length, test weight and harvest index were not significantly influenced by any of the tillage or nutrient management practices. Zero tillage + Residue management and Zero tillage increased the grain and straw yield of direct seeded rice to the tune of 14.03% (grain); 9.27% (straw) and, 10.15%(grain); 6.1% (straw) over Conventional tillage, respectively. While SSNM based on Nutrient expert® and 60% RDN + GSGN + 100% PK of, RDF increased grain and straw yield of direct seeded rice to the tune of 14.91%; 7.73% and 12.07%; 5.52% over RDF, respectively. Zero tillage + Residue management among tillage practices and SSNM based on Nutrient expert® among nutrient management treatments resulted in maximum gross returns (₹ 91451, ₹ 91321 /ha); net returns (₹ 59050, ₹ 59313 /ha) and BCR (1.83, 1.86) respectively.