Influence of Different Crop Establishment and Irrigation Methods on Growth and Growth Indices of Rice

Abstract

The increasing global demand for water in many sectors has become a universal concern. Challenge is to develop advanced production systems that allow rice production to be sustained in the face of waning water availability. With the intention to find the efficient water saving technology and establishment method, a field experiment was conducted at Zonal Agricultural Research Station, V. C. Farm, Mandya, University of Agricultural Sciences, and Bangalore during Kharif 2018. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with three main plot irrigation treatments and five sub plot rice establishment treatments. The paddy variety used was ‘MTU 1001’. Objective was to study the irrigation and establishment methods on growth of rice. The results revealed that, continuous flooding recorded significantly higher plant height (80.67 cm) at harvest. Whereas, alternate wetting and drying (AWD) recorded higher leaf area index (5.06), CGR at 30 to 60 DAS, 60 to 90 DAS and 90 DAS to harvest (1.49,  3.50 and 2.47 g m-2 day-1, respectively), NAR at 30 to 60 DAS and 60 to 90 DAS (7.19 and 4.37 mg cm-2 day-1, respectively). Among establishment methods, manual transplanting recorded higher plant height (81.82 cm), LAI (5.70), DME (55.77), AGR at 30 DAS (0.36 g day-1), CGR at 30 to 60 DAS and 60 to 90 DAS (1.73 and 3.94 g m-2 day-1, respectively) and LAD at 30 to 60 DAS, 60 to 90 DAS and 90DAS to harvest (49.50, 128.70 and 272.80, respectively). However, mechanical transplanting recorded significantly more number of tillers m-2 (765.67), NAR at 30 to 60 DAS and 60 to 90 DAS (9.96 and 4.41 mg cm-2 day-1, respectively). AWD method of irrigation in mechanical transplanting and manual transplanting are found to be better among all other methods due to the higher growth and development.