Effect of Variety and Seedling Number on the Growth and Yield of Boro Rice in Bangladesh

Abstract

Rice is the most important human food crop in the world. In Bangladesh rice is cultivated throughout the year as Aus, Aman and Boro. Among them boro rice is generally cultivated in November to March. More than half of the total production (55.5%) is obtained in this season. Generally, farmers use more than the recommended number of seedlings during transplanting. The number of seedlings plays a vital role in the growth, development and yield of rice. The aim of this experiment was to determine the number of seedling(s) during transplanting for boro rice varieties for higher growth and yield. This investigation was carried out at the research field of BINA sub-station under Khagrachari sadar upazila in Bangladesh during December 2017 to May 2018. The experiment tested three seedling numbers; S1 (Single), S2 (double), S3 (triple) and four varieties V1 (BRRI dhan-28), V2 (Binadhan-14), V3 (Heera-1), V4 (Shakti-2) in a factorial RCB design with three replications. Results revealed that significantly highest plant height was obtained with treatment S1´V3 (110.30 cm) and S3´V4 (109.4 cm) while the maximum number of tillers/hill from S3´V1 (16.93) and S2´V1 (16.07). In terms of production, treatment combination S3´V4 gave the highest grain (10.40 t/ha), straw (10.40 t/ha) and biological yield (10.40 t/ha). Harvest index was the highest in treatment S1´V4 (59.48). From the above findings it was observed that single seedling performed better than two and three seedlings per hill in terms of getting optimum yield of boro rice varieties. Hence, the rice growing farmers should avoid the use of extra seedlings during transplanting to save labor, time and money.