PERFORMANCE OF RICE (ORYZA SATIVA L.) PLANT UNDER DIFFERENT WATER REGIMES AND METHODS OF PLANTING

Abstract: The impact of greater water scarcity on agriculture will be manifested prominently in the rice production sector. It is, therefore, important to identify rice production systems that require less irrigation water with minimum grain yield reduction. The present study investigated the effect of crop planting methods on grain yield and water productivity of Sakha 104 rice cultivar under different water regimes during 2004 and 2005 summer seasons at the Experimental Farm of Rice Research and Training Center (RRTC), Sakha, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt. Two field experiments were laid out in a strip-plot design, with four replications, where, four irrigation regimes; namely, continuous flooding (CF), continuous saturation (CS), irrigation every six days (6D) and irrigation every eight days (8D), were allocated in the horizontal plots. The vertical plots were occupied by four methods of planting; namely, broadcasting (B), mechanical drilling (MD), mechanical transplanting (MT) and regular transplanting (RT) in 2004 season, while, in 2005 season, irregular transplanting (IT) method was substituted with MT.
The main results revealed that CF and CS regimes gave the highest grain yield, compared with the other regimes. The plant height, number of tillers/m2, number of panicles/m2, panicle length, panicle weight, total number of grains/panicle, sink capacity, panicle density, 1000-grain weight and panicle weight, also, showed similar trends. However, results showed that 8D regime gave the highest values of unfilled grains (%).
Comparing the planting methods, RT method recorded the highest values of grain yield, followed by B method. However, MD method gave the lowest grain yield in both seasons.
Reducing water input from continuous flooding water levels increased water productivity (WP) up to a maximum of 0.84 and 0.81 kg grain per m3 water when the soil was kept at saturation in 2004 and 2005 seasons, respectively. Water savings averaged 23.8 %, whereas grain yield reductions, only, were about 3 %. RT method had the highest WP (about 0.89 kg rice per m3 water), compared with MD and B methods.
Generally, keeping the soil at saturation conditions (CS) gave similar grain yield as that of CF for all planting methods, with only 3-4% reduction in grain yield and increased water productivity up to a maximum of 0.84 kg grain per m3 water. This means that almost 20-25% of irrigation water could be saved, if all farmers followed such practice. But, The adoption of such techniques might have implications for irrigation systems, because water delivery to the field needs to be very accurate and timely applied.
Key words: Rice, water regimes, methods of planting and water productivity.
Publication year 2006
Pages 47-55.
Availability location معهد بحوث المحاصيل الحقلية- 9شارع الجامعة- الجيزة
Availability number
Organization Name
serial title مجلة جامعة الإسكندرية للعلوم الزراعية
ISSN 7250- 004
Author(s) from ARC
Agris Categories Agriculture - General aspects
AGROVOC
TERMS		 Oryza sativa. Water.
Publication Type Journal
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