Growth and yield of rice as influenced by plant spacing and variety =

Growth and yield of rice as influenced by plant spacing and variety under System of Rice Intensification during wet season

S.B.Goswami= and Sujoy Dutta

Department of Agronomy,<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Bidhan= Chandra Krishi Viswavidyal= aya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Be= ngal. 741252.

Modern rice cultivation got the momentum with the introduction of high yielding varieties like TN1, IR8, Jaya, Ratna and later = IR 50, IR 64 and IR 36, IET 4094 and IET 4786 in irrigated ecosystem in West Bengal during 1980s. With the rapid develop= ment of tube well irrigation technology coupled with chemical fertilization and higher profit margin pushed up the rice cultivation area and production. Production growth of rice is now stagnating or even declining with decrease in cultivated area due urbanizat= ion and fall in productivity in irrigated ecosystem. In this critical juncture = rice growers have only option to go for varietal substitution, newer production technology, crop diversification which can sustain or increase the rice productivity.= Among the new alternatives for increasing rice productivity, system = of rice intensification (SRI) brings new hopes to the farmers at home and abro= ad. Yield advantage under SRI depends on the input management practices, geographical location, variety and natural resou= rce management practices adopted.

Keeping this in view, efforts have been made to study the impact of planting geomet= ry i.e. SRI (25 cm x 25 cm) and traditional transplanting by 4 hills (15 cm x = 15 cm) on the growth and yield performances of Ajoya, Khitish and Shamya masuri rice varieties grown in wet season of West Ben= gal situation during 2005. Crop was transplanted planted in 2^nd week= of July with the seedling of 12 days age and with the fertilization of NPK @ 80:40:40 kg/ha (25% as organic source). Shallow submergence of water was maintained for all the treatments. Results of the experiment revealed that SRI technique for all three variet= ies recorded higher yields viz. Ajoya 6.68, Khitish 6.77 and Shamya <= span class=3DSpellE>masuri 7.42 t/ha against their traditional transplant= ing technique 5.16, 4.94 and 6.05 t/ha respectively during kharif season of west Benga= l. Yield advantages of Ajoya 31%, Khitish 37% and Samya masuri 23%. The yield improvement of= SRI over normal transplanted was mainly noted by the increased tillerization and grain numbers and panicle weight of three varieties.

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