Growth and productivity of different rice cultivars under dry direct seeding in red and laterite soil of West Bengal

Introduction

The rice culture system in the country mainly depends on the onset and distribution of monsoon rain. Erratic distribution of rainfall and lack of irrigation during these periods compel the farmers to choose alternative for transplanting. Transplanted puddled rice, the conventional way of rice cultivation has lot of challenges particularly with respect to water use efficiency, time consuming, more labour use etc (Saha et al., 2020) [7] . These factors demand a major shift from puddled transplanting to direct seeding of rice (Kaur and Singh, 2017) [3] . Direct seeded rice (DSR), probably the oldest method of crop establishment throughout Asia, is gaining popularity because of its low input demands. It offers certain advantages viz., it gives similar yields, saving water, labour and production costs, slow the loss of organic matter, reduces the soil erosion, less drudgery, early crop maturity, low production cost, better soil physical condition, highest net economic return and reduction of methane emissions. Direct seeded rice requires shorter crop duration, requires less water and had high water efficiency than transplanting rice. Direct seeding gave grain yields superior to those of transplanted rice using short-duration IR58, PR-115, Shusk Samrat, Pusa-33, PR-120, Sahabhagidhan but equal or lower grain-yield using the medium-and long-duration varieties (Samant et al., 2015 and Kumar et al., 2018) [28,4] . Among the varieties, significantly higher grain and straw yield was recorded with GGV-05-01, SIRI-1253 and BPT-5204 as compared to KRH-4 hybrid reported by Anand et al. (2018) [1] . As all rice cultivars do not perform favourably under direct seeding, there is a need for the evaluation of rice cultivars under dry seeding conditions to establish the better ones.

Material and Methods

Description of Experimental site

The field experiment was conducted during kharif season in 2019-20 at Agricultural farm, Palli Siksha Bhavana (Institute of Agriculture), Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan, West Bengal, India. The soil of the experimental site belonged to red and laterite soil group and was sandy loam in texture with acidic in reaction with pH of 6.15, low in available nitrogen (265 kg N ha -1 ), medium in available phosphorus (19 kg P 2 O 5 ha -1 ), medium in available potassium content (140 kg K 2 O ha -1 ) and low in organic carbon (0.38%) content. During cropping season, the amount of rain fall received from middle of June and continues up to October was 116.9 mm spanned over 77 rainy days.

Rice cultivars evaluated

The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications allocating different HYV and hybrid rice varieties based on small, medium and long duration (Table 1). All 13 varieties of rice were directly sown at the spacing of 20 cm line to line and depth of sowing was 2-3 cm. The well decomposed farm yard manure @ 5 ton ha -1 was applied before final land preparation. The recommended fertilizer was applied by broadcasting @ 80:40:40 kg N-P 2 O 5 -K 2 O ha -1 for variety having 140-160 days of duration (MTU 7029 and Pratiksha) and @ 60:30:30 kg N-P 2 O 5 -K 2 O ha -1 for variety having 115-125 days of duration (MTU 1010, Shatabdi (IET 4786), Khitish (IET 4094), IR 36, IR 64, Gotra Bidhan 1 (GB1), Sahabhagi, Annada, Parijat) and @ 120:60:60 kg N-P 2 O 5 -K 2 O ha -1 for hybrid duration of 110-130 days (6444 Gold and AZ 6453). At basal, one-fourth of N, total P 2 O 5 and 50% K 2 O were applied. Half N was applied at active tillering stage and final one-fourth part of N and half K 2 O were applied at panicle initiation stage. Growth parameters like plant height, number of tillers m -2 at milk stage of grain filling while dry matter production was recorded at harvesting time. Observation on yield attributes such as number of effective tillers m -2 , panicle length, panicle weight, number of spikelets per panicle, number of filled grains and 1000 grain weight were recorded. Crop was harvested at full maturity stage. Both grain and straw yield were recorded after harvesting and threshing followed by proper cleaning and drying of grain and straw.

Statistical analysis

Finally collected data were statistically analysed for ANOVA and the treatment means were compared by following DMRT as outlined in Gomez and Gomez (1984).

Results and Discussion

The growth attributes of direct seeded rice, like plant counts, plant height, number of tillers m -2 , and dry matter accumulation, recorded at various stages of growth of different cultivars, were presented in Table 2.

Growth parameters 3.1.1 Plant height

There were significant differences in the plant height of the rice varieties/hybrids tested. The hybrid AZ 6453 registered the maximum plant height (106.7 cm), which was at par with the plant height of other hybrid 6444 Gold (101.1 cm) Gevrek et al.

(2008) [2] , and rice varieties like Sahabhagi (106.3 cm), GB 1 (106.3 cm), Khitish (101.3 cm), Pratiksha (102.0 cm) and Shatabdi (99.8 cm). The varieties like MTU 7029, IR 36 and Annada recorded plant height less than 90 cm, whereas plant heights of MTU 1010, IR 64 and Parijat were in the range of above 90 cm and below 1m. [5,6] .

Comparatively lower tiller numbers were recorded in varieties like Annada (501 m⁻²) and GB 1 (496 m⁻²), whereas Sahabhagi (442 m⁻²) produced the minimum number of tillers per square meter. Overall, the results indicated that modern varieties and hybrids generally performed better in tillering than traditional cultivars, though a few varieties like Sahabhagi showed limited tillering ability under dry direct seeding.

Dry matter production

In terms of dry matter production also there were significant differences among the rice varieties and hybrids tested under dry direct seeding. The hybrid AZ 6453 recorded the maximum dry matter production (1338 g m⁻²), which was significantly superior over all other varieties and hybrids, followed by 6444 Gold (1185 g m⁻²) and MTU 7029 (1167 g m⁻²). These were statistically at par with IR 64 (1103 g m⁻²), Pratiksha (1097 g m⁻²), and Khitish (1059 g m⁻²), indicating better biomass accumulation. Moderate dry matter accumulation was observed in varieties like GB 1 (1023 g m⁻²), IR 36 (1020 g m⁻²), and Sahabhagi (877 g m⁻²). Comparatively lower dry matter production was registered in varieties such as MTU 1010 (829 g m⁻²), Annada (798 g m⁻²), Shatabdi (724 g m⁻²), and Parijat (711 g m⁻²), suggesting relatively poor growth performance. Overall, hybrids and improved varieties exhibited higher dry matter accumulation compared to traditional cultivars, reflecting their better growth efficiency under dry direct seeding conditions. Higher plant height, irrespective of source, accumulation of higher amount of dry matter almost in all cultivar, supporting the well establishment fact nitrogen sufficiency resulted into vigorous growth of the foliage (Singh et al., 2007) [9] .

Panicle length

There were significant differences in panicle length among the rice varieties and hybrids. The longest panicle was recorded in Sahabhagi (23.9 cm), which was statistically par with the panicle length of hybrid 6444 Gold (23.2 cm) and rice varieties like Pratiksha (22.8 cm), Shatabdi (22.7 cm), GB1 (22.2 cm), and Khitish (22.0 cm). The hybrids AZ 6453 (21.6 cm) and rice varieties IR 64 (21.9 cm) and MTU 1010 (21.3 cm) also registered higher panicle length compared to others. In contrast, shorter panicles were observed in rice varieties MTU 7029 (18.9 cm) and Annada (20.0 cm), which were significantly lower than most of the other tested varieties.

Panicle weight

Panicle weight also varied significantly across the tested varieties and hybrids. The highest panicle weight was observed in rice variety GB1 (26.5 g), which was at par with the rice varieties Pratiksha (27.1 g) and Sahabhagi (20.7 g) and hybrids 6444 Gold (20.4 g) and AZ6453 (20.1 g). Medium panicle weight was recorded in rice varieties like Annada (16.1 g), Shatabdi (15.8 g), IR 36 (15.0 g), and IR 64 (13.8 g). On the other hand, lighter panicles were found in rice varieties like MTU 1010 (12.5 g), MTU 7029 (13.2 g), Khitish (11.5 g), and Parijat (10.2 g) than other varieties.

Number of spikelets panicle -1

The number of spikelets per panicle differed widely among the varieties and hybrids. GB1 produced the highest spikelet count (192)

Economic parameters

Data of economic analysis viz., cost of cultivation, gross monetary returns (GMR), net monetary returns (NMR), return per rupee are given in Table 5.

Gross monetary returns (GMR)

There were significant differences in gross monetary return among the rice varieties and hybrids tested under dry direct seeding. The hybrid 6444 Gold recorded the highest GMR (₹78,299 ha⁻¹), closely followed by AZ6453 (₹76,862 ha⁻¹). Among the varieties, GB1 (₹60,597 ha⁻¹) and Pratiksha (₹59,423 ha⁻¹) also registered comparatively higher returns. Moderate GMR values were observed in varieties like Annada (₹47,033 ha⁻¹), IR36 (₹46,549 ha⁻¹), Sahabhagi (₹45,835 ha⁻¹), and IR64 (₹43,838 ha⁻¹). On the other hand, lower GMR was observed in Khitish (₹36,639 ha⁻¹), Shatabdi (₹36,688 ha⁻¹), and Parijat (₹36,373 ha⁻¹). The lowest GMR was obtained from MTU 7029 (₹25,108 ha⁻¹).

Net monetary returns (NMR)

The net monetary return also showed wide variation across the rice varieties and hybrids. The maximum NMR was recorded in 6444 Gold (₹42,910 ha⁻¹), which was at par with the hybrid AZ 6453 (₹41,473 ha⁻¹) and variety GB1 (₹30,026 ha⁻¹).

Conclusion

The evaluation of different rice varieties and hybrids under dry direct seeded conditions revealed considerable variability in growth, yield attributes, productivity, and economic performance. The growth and productivity of different rice cultivars varied significantly. The hybrid 6444 Gold (4.31 t ha -1 ) recorded the highest growth and productivity among all the cultivars tested under direct seeding. Among HYVs MTU 7029 recorded minimum productivity (1.38 t ha -1 ). Among the hybrid 6444 Gold recorded higher grain yield (4.31 t ha -1 ) being at par with AZ 6453 (4.19 t ha -1 ). And among the HYVs under long duration Pratiksha (3.27 t ha -1 ) recorded highest grain yield and among medium duration cultivars, GB1 (3.34 t ha -1 ) recorded higher grain yield, followed by Annada (2.59 t ha -1 ).

Considering economics of crop production, the highest gross monetary return (GMR), net monetary return (NMR) and return per rupee investment was recorded by hybrid 6444 Gold (78299 Rs ha -1 ), (42910 Rs ha -1 ) and (2.21 Rs ha -1 ) respectively. The HYV GB1 and Pratiksha was found to be at par with the hybrids in terms of net return and return per Rupee invested. Overall, the study emphasizes that hybrids like 6444 Gold and AZ6453, followed by varieties such as GB1 and Pratiksha, are promising options for enhancing the productivity and profitability of rice under dry direct seeded conditions in red and lateritic soils of West Bengal.

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