Screening of rice varieties and hybrids for SRI cultivation under irrigated ecosystem

Screening of rice varieties and hybrids for SRI cultivation under irrigated ecosystem=

V. Ravindra Babu, R. Mahender Kumar, = L.V. Subba Rao, A.S. Rama Pras= ad, P. Muthuraman and B.C. Viraktamath<= /span>

Directorate of Rice Research, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad 500 030, AP

&= nbsp; Rice is life for people of Asia and pacific r= egion where 90% of it is produced and consumed. The demand for rice continues to increase due to the unabated growth of population. There is a = need for increasing the yields of rice to meet this demand as land and water resources are diminishing. Sustainable rice production is the major challenge for food security= in the new millennium.

&= nbsp; SRI method of rice cultivation promises to enhance rice production and producti= vity with lesser inputs like water and nutrients. Studies conducted under AICRIP programme indicated that all the varieties and all types of soils are not suitable to achieve higher productivity through SRI method of rice cultivation. Henc= e, there is a need to evaluate rice cultivars (high yielding, hybrids) of different maturity group for their suitability under SRI. During kharif 2005, forty high yie= lding and popular cultivars were evaluated for yield performance under SRI and no= rmal transplanting with similar fertilizer management conditions. The results revealed that grain yi= elds were better under SRI. Howeve= r, there were significant varietal differences. The interaction between the methods and varieties was also significant. This sh= owed that the varietal response differed under SRI.<= o:p>

The top 10 entries with respect to grain yield under Sri were Sheshadri (6.3 t/ha), KRH-2 (5.76 t/ha), HRI 126 (5.57 t/ha), PSB 71 (5.5 t/ha), NDR 359 (5.44 t/= ha), Pant Dhan-4 (5.29 t/ha), CORH-2(5.24 t/ha), PSD-1 (5.2 t/ha), Jaya (4.9 t/h= a) and Gurjari (4.82 t/ha). Five of these are hybrids. Among the varieties, yield advantage in= terms of % gain in grain yield unde= r SRI over normal transplanting was the highest for BPT 17111(146%) which was followed= by BPT 5204 (138%), NLR 37654 (118%), NLR 145 (97%), Jaya (89%), Swarna (85%),= Pusa Basmati 1(80%), DL183(79%), Giri (77%), White Ponni (63%) and Sheshadri (57%). In all, about 50% of the entries showed more than 40% yield gain. Am= ong the top 10 varieties in terms of grain yield under conventional method only= Sheshadri showed 57% more yield under SRI while all o= thers recorded low yield advantage. This indicated top yield= ers in conventional methods are not always superior under SRI. Hence it is dedu= ced that there existed a wide variability in response to SRI cultivation among = rice genotypes.

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