Abstract

The objective of this study was to develop best method of rice establishment because of scarcity of irrigation water, shortage of farm laborers and increasing cost of rice cultivation in conventional transplanting in puddled soil, forcing rice farmers to explore the alternatives of transplanting and to determine the optimum N rates for high yielding rice varieties and to maximize yield and profit. In this regard, a field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2016 at Agronomy Research Farm, College of Agriculture, N. D. University of Agriculture and Technology, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India to find out the best crop establishment method and the optimum nitrogen dose for obtaining higher yield of rice. The main plot consisted of three methods of establishment (M1-Transplanting, M2-System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and M3-Direct seeding) with five nitrogen levels (N0-0 kg N/ha, N1-40 kg N/ha, N2-80 kg N/ha, N3-120 Kg N/ha and N4-160 kg N/ha) in sub plots replicated thrice. The results revealed that highest plant height (86.14 cm), number of effective tillers (464.40/m2), leaf area index (4.19), dry matter accumulation (1027.5 g), days taken to 50% flowering (81.20), days taken to maturity (135.51) and B:C ratio (SRI+160 kg N/ha -1:2.10) in favour of SRI technique. Among the different establishment methods, grain and straw yield was recorded higher with SRI (52.14 and 61.42 q/ha, respectively) and at par with transplanting (45.43 q/ha) while lower yield was realized under direct seeding method (36.82 and 47.71 q/ha, respectively). Based on the results obtained, it can be concluded that in areas where labour is available and cheap, SRI technique is a better establishment method of rice because it produces more yield and gross monetary economic return compared to other methods.