Growth and yield of boro rice (Oryza sativa L.) in response to crop establishment methods and varieties

Abstract

Physiological attributes and yield performance of high yielding varieties (HYV) of rice cultivars need to be assessed by crop establishment methods before promoting a suitable crop establishment method in Bangladesh. We, therefore, conducted an experiment to study the effects of crop establishment methods on the growth and yield of boro rice. The experiment comprised of two factors; factor A: methods of crop establishment viz., dry direct seeding, unpuddle transplanting, alternate wetting and drying (AWD) and puddle transplanting; factor B: rice cultivars viz., BRRI dhan28, BRRI dhan58, BRRI dhan74 and BRRI hybrid dhan3. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with three replications where method of crop establishment was assigned to the main plot and rice cultivar was assigned to the sub plots. Data were collected at different growth stages and at harvest. From the results, it was found that growth, yield and yield contributing characters were significantly influenced by crop establishment methods. The highest leaf area index (LAI), total dry matter and grain yield were found in puddle transplanting method. The highest grain yield was obtained in puddle transplanting method due to accumulation of maximum dry matter and production of highest number of effective tillers hill^-1 and grains panicle^-1. Among the varieties the highest grain yield was obtain in BRRI hybrid dhan3 due to highest number of grains panicle^-1 and 1000-grain weight. The highest grain yield (6.21 t ha^-1) was found in puddle transplanting with BRRI dhan28, while the lowest grain yield (2.80 t ha^-1) was produced in dry direct seeding with BRRI dhan28. Therefore, puddle transplanting with BRRI dhan28 might be recommended due to best physiological performance and obtaining highest grain yield of boro rice.