Performance of salinity tolerant rice varieties MCM-100 & MCM-103 in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh

Introduction

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important crops in the world that offers food for more than 50% of the world's population. A 100 g of rice provides 345.0 k cal, 78.2 g of carbohydrates and 6.8 g of protein. Agricultural land of 8s33 million ha of soils are salt affected (FAO, 2021) globally in more than 100 countries. In India, the available salt affected soil exists in the form of sodic and saline, covering 6.73 million hectares out of which 2.95 million hectares are saline soils. In total saline soils of India, Andhra Pradesh stands at 7th place with a share of 6.2% (Arora and Sharma 2017) [1] . In Andhra Pradesh, Krishna district stands first under saline soils with 42,796 ha. (Mandal et al. 2018) [7] . Soil salinity is one the major constraints for rice productivity in coastal areas of Andhra Pradesh. Rice is cultivating in 22 lakh hectares in Andhra Pradesh state with 8.79 million tonnes production (G. P. Sunandini et al. 2023) [6] . The average productivity of paddy is 6661 kg ha -1 . In Krishna district paddy is cultivating in 1.62 Lakh ha. Rice crop is highly suitable for warm and humid climate. The ideal pH range for paddy is 5.5 to 7.0. The rice crop is salt sensitive crop particularly at seedling and reproductive stages and threshold electrical conductivity of 3 dS m -1 considered as the salinity tolerance (Mohammadi et al., 2013) [8] . Cultivation of saline tolerant rice varieties along with better management practices (Green manure insitu incorporations or Greenleaf manuring practices) will reduce the yield loss in saline soils. Salt [2] . Hence, the study was planned with the objective to improve the yield of paddy in saline soils that are comparable with that of normal soils under kharif season through Frontline demonstrations in the district.

Materials and Methods

The present experiment was conducted by Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Ghantasala during the Kharif season for four consecutive years during 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 in the farmers fields of different 15 villages thus a making of total 30 demonstrations. A total of thirty farmers were selected based on their innovativeness, progressive and activeness in adoption of latest technologies with the help of department officials and direct observation while during field visits and other interactive meetings. The frontline demonstration was conducted in three consecutive years in the farmer fields with a main objective to demonstrate the performance of new saline tolerant rice varieties under saline condition. The saline tolerant rice www.extensionjournal.com variety MCM-100 & MCM-103 was used as a demo and BPT-5204 used as control. Viswanadapalli, Koduru, Chittipalem, Saluru, Salempalem, Nagayalanka, Dhindimeraka, Hamsaladeevi and Modumudi villages of Krishna district were selected as experimental units during kharif 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The testing varieties MCM-100 & MCM-103 were provided to the selected farmers and the package of practices for paddy cultivation followed as per ANGRAU recommendations. The data on yield and economics of all the varieties were recorded. The data obtained from experiments were subjected to statistical analysis. Statistical significance was tested by applying Ttest at 0.05 level of probability and critical differences were calculated for those parameters, which were found significant (p< 0.05) to compare the effects of different varietal treatments.

Results and Discussion

Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Ghantasala has conducted Front line demonstration of paddy crop in 30 locations during four consecutive Results of the Pooled years data (Table-1 (a)) MCM-100 & 103 recorded significantly higher plant height (Cm) (107.3 cm and 103.6 cm), productive tillers hill - 1 (17 and 18), Panicle length (Cm) (24 and 21.2 cm) and number of grains per panicles (258 and 224) over BPT-5204. Similar findings were recorded with Girijarani et al.

2024 [5] . Results of the pooled data (Table -2) indicated that saline tolerant varieties MCM-100, MCM-103 recorded higher yield (58.8 q ha -1 , 53.4 q ha -1 ) which was significantly superior over BPT-5204 (50.8 q ha -1 ) under saline conditions. Datta et al (2005) [3] suggested cultivars exhibit different levels of salt resistance and salt sensitivity due to more exclusion of NA and Cl ions by salt tolerant varieties and possible salt injuries which may be due to less effective sequestration or mobility of ions towards some innocuous centers of plant tissue. The overall yield increased was 13.2, 8% under MCM-100 & MCM-103 demo variety compared to BPT-5204. Regarding economics, highest net returns (Rs.42,855.00 ha -1 , Rs.53,406.00) noted with MCM-100 & MCM-103 where as in BPT-5204 it was Rs.30,196.00 ha -1 and B:C ratio 1.65:1, 1.74:1 was more in treatmental varieties (MCM-100 & MCM-103) where as 1.39: 1 in BPT-5204. Similar findings were recorded with Girijarani et al. 2024 [5] , Roy et al. 2023 [9] , B Tejasri and B Aparna, 2022 [10] . The reason for above results due to that the new varieties MCM-100 & MCM-103 was saline tolerant rice varieties during these four consecutive years. Economics of any crop plays a major role in making recommendations for dissemination of a new technology and its adoption to the farmers. The data related to net returns and B:C ratio of Demo and farmer practice were presented in Table 3.

Statistical analysis

Interference: P value is above 4.6 reveals that calculated test statistic value is greater than standard value indicating rejection of null hypothesis and accepting alternate hypothesis. And the result indicated that MCM-100 & MCM-103 recorded higher yield (55.3 q ha -1 ) which was significantly superior over BPT-5204 (50.6 q ha -1 ).

Conclusion

From the four years of demonstrations, it could be concluded that the Demonstration of salt tolerant paddy varieties MCM-100 & MCM-103 with management practices along with regular advises, frequent monitoring, timely operations and need based training programmes by KVK, Ghantasala leads to good yields of rice in saline soil condition. It could be considered as a better option for achieving higher productivity and profitability of paddy crop under salinity condition in areas of Viswanadhapalli, Koduru, Nagayalanka, Dhindimeraka, Hamsaladeevi and Machilipatnam areas of Krishna district.

References

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