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Agronomic evaluation of ricecultivation systems for water and grainproductivityVelliangiri Geethalakshmi a , Thanakkan Ramesh b , AzhaguPalamuthirsolai c & Lakshmanan aa Department of Agro Climate Research Centre , Tamil NaduAgricultural University , Coimbatore, Indiab Department of Agronomy , Tamil Nadu Agricultural University ,Coimbatore, Indiac Department of Plant Physiology , Tamil Nadu AgriculturalUniversity , Coimbatore, IndiaPublished online: 05 Apr 2011.

To cite this article: Velliangiri Geethalakshmi , Thanakkan Ramesh , Azhagu Palamuthirsolai& Lakshmanan (2011) Agronomic evaluation of rice cultivation systems for waterand grain productivity, Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science, 57:2, 159-166, DOI:10.1080/03650340903286422

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Agronomic evaluation of rice cultivation systems for water and grain

productivity

Velliangiri Geethalakshmia, Thanakkan Rameshb*,Azhagu Palamuthirsolaic and Lakshmanana

Departments of aAgro Climate Research Centre, bAgronomy, and cPlant Physiology,Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India

(Received 22 May 2009; final version received 14 August 2009)

Field experiments were conducted during summer (March–July) and kharif(June–September), 2008 at the wetland farm, Tamil Nadu AgriculturalUniversity, Coimbatore, India, to study the performance of different ricecultivation methods on productivity and water usage using the hybrid CORH-3as a test crop. Treatments consisted of different rice cultivation methods, namely,transplanted rice (conventional), direct sown rice (wet seeded), alternate wettingand drying method (AWD), system of rice intensification (SRI) and aerobic ricecultivation. Results revealed that maximum number of tillers m72, higher shootand root length at maturity were recorded under SRI followed by transplantedrice, while aerobic rice produced lower growth parameters in both the seasons.Chlorophyll content at flowering was higher under SRI in two seasons studied(42.74 and 39.48 SPAD value, respectively) and transplanted rice compared toaerobic rice and AWD. In both summer and kharif seasons, SRI produced highergrain yield (6014 and 6682 kg ha71), followed by transplanted rice (5732 and6262 kg ha71), while the lowest grain yield (3582 and 3933 kg ha71) was recordedunder aerobic rice cultivation. Under SRI, 5 and 6.7% increase in grain yield and12.6 and 14.8% water saving were noticed compared to transplanted rice,respectively, during summer and kharif seasons. In respect to water productivity,the SRI method of rice cultivation registered the highest water productivity(0.43 and 0.47 kg m73), followed by AWD and aerobic rice cultivation. Theconventional rice cultivation and direct sown rice produced lower grain yield perunit quantity of water used.

Keywords: transplanted rice, SRI; wet seeded rice; alternate wetting and dryingmethod; aerobic rice; water productivity

Introduction

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is one of the most important staple food crops in the world. InAsia, more than two billion people receive 60–70% of their energy requirement fromrice and its derived products. In India, rice occupies an area of 44 million hectarewith an average production of 90 million tonnes and a productivity of 2.0 tonnes perhectare. Demand for rice is growing every year and it is estimated that in 2010 and2025 the requirement would be 100 and 140 million tones, respectively. To sustainpresent food self-sufficiency and to meet future food requirements, India has to

*Corresponding author. Email: agronramesh@gmail.com

Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science

Vol. 57, No. 2, April 2011, 159–166

ISSN 0365-0340 print/ISSN 1476-3567 online

� 2011 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/03650340903286422

http://www.informaworld.com

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increase its rice productivity by 3% per annum (Thiyagarajan and Selvaraju 2001).Rice cultivation requires a large quantity of water (1200–1500 mm). For producing1 kg rice, about 3000–5000 litres of water are necessary depending on the differentrice cultivation methods such as transplanted rice, direct sown rice (wet seeded),alternate wetting and drying method (AWD), system of rice intensification (SRI) andaerobic rice. Owing to increasing water scarcity, a shifting trend towards less waterdemanding crops is noticed in most parts of India and this warrants alternativemethods of rice cultivation that aims at higher water and crop productivity.Transplanting is the dominant crop establishment practice in most of the tropicalAsia. In this method, the land is puddled and seedlings are raised in a nursery andtransplanted (Islam 1987). Direct seeding under puddled soil enhanced the cropestablishment, vegetative growth and reduced crop duration (Garcia et al. 1994).There are evidences that cultivation of rice through the system of rice intensification(SRI) can increase rice yields by 2- to 3-fold compared to current yield levels (AbuYamah 2002). Uphoff (2001) stated that transplanting of very young seedlingsusually 8–12-days-old, preserves a potential for tillering and rooting and that wasreduced if transplanting occurs after the fourth phyllochron (time betweenelongation of successive leaves). Aerobic rice cultivation where fields remainunsaturated throughout the season like an upland crop offers an opportunity toproduce rice with less water (Bouman et al. 2002). In this context, a field experimentwas conducted at the wetland farm of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University,Coimbatore, India. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate theperformance of different systems of rice cultivation in terms of its water use efficiencyand grain productivity.

Materials and methods

Site characteristics

Field experiments were carried out during summer and kharif, 2008, at the wetlandfarm of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, India, toevaluate the performance of different systems of rice cultivation. The experimentalfield was clay loam in texture, taxonomically known as Typic Haplustalf, neutral inpH (7.1) and the EC was 0.4 dS m71. The soil was low (203 kg ha71) in available N,medium (19.6 kg ha71) in available P, and high (524 kg ha71) in available K. Theorganic carbon content was 0.56%.

Experimental design and treatments

The experiment was laid out in a randomized block design with four replications.Treatments consisted of different rice cultivation methods: Transplanted rice(conventional), direct sown rice (wet seeded), alternate wetting and drying method(AWD) (irrigation at once in three days), system of rice intensification (SRI) andaerobic rice cultivation. Rice hybrid CORH-3 was studied as the test crop. Fourteen-day-old seedlings were transplanted with a spacing of 22.5 6 22.5 cm in SRI. Theconventional and AWD methods used 24-day-old seedlings with a spacing of20 6 15 cm. In aerobic rice, the pre-germinated seeds were sown in rows of 20 cmapart and 10 cm within rows by using a TNAU aerobic rice drum seeder inthoroughly prepared dry soil. Direct sown wet seeded rice was sown by using aneight-row paddy drum seeder in a puddled soil. Recommended dose of fertilizer for

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hybrid at 175:60:60 kg NPK ha71 was applied. At 20 and 35 days after transplantinghand weeding was carried out twice in conventional and AWD methods. Weedingwas carried out three times using cono weeder at 10-day intervals from the 10th dayafter transplanting for SRI plots. Hand weeding at 15, 30 and 45 days after sowingwas given in aerobic and wet seeded rice. Water management varied in differenttreatments following the recommended practices. Immediately after the disappear-ance of standing water, irrigation at 5 cm depth was applied in conventional, wetseeded rice. The application of 2.5 cm depth of water after the formation of ahairline crack was followed in SRI. Aerobic rice field was irrigated once in 3–4 daysinterval depending on weather condition. The plants were harvested after a growthperiod of four months.

Data collection and data analysis

Observations on growth and yield characters were carried out at critical stages of cropgrowth. Plant height was measured from the ground level to the tip of the top mostfully opened leaf and expressed in cm. The Minolta model SPAD 502 chlorophyllmeter was used to measure the chlorophyll content in leaf (Johnkutty andPalaniappan 1995). For determining grain yield, all the plants from the net plotarea were harvested separately, threshed manually and the grain yield for eachtreatment was expressed in kg ha71 at 14% moisture. In all the systems, the totalwater used was quantified by using a water meter (Rogers and Thomas 1978). Waterproductivity was worked out by dividing the grain yield with total water used. Thecollected data on various parameters was analyzed statistically as per the methodsuggested by Gomez and Gomez (1984). The treatment combinations were statis-tically analyzed separately and the results are furnished at 5% critical difference level.

Results and discussion

Growth attributes

Growth parameters of rice as influenced by different methods of rice cultivation arepresented in Table 1. Significantly higher shoot (85.2 and 86.6 cm) and root length(29.2 and 29.5 cm) at maturity were recorded under system of rice intensification(SRI) in both the seasons. However, this was comparable with transplanted rice andwet seeded rice. Aerobic rice produced lesser shoot and root length in both theseason experiments. Rice under SRI produced significantly more numbers of tillersm72 (414 and 448) than other systems of rice production. This was closely followedby transplanted rice and direct sown rice. The optimum plant population andgeometry under SRI led to the availability of more resources to the plants thatresulted in increased plant height and more number of tillers (Koma and Sinv 2003).Furthermore, SRI provided optimal growing conditions to individual rice plants sothat tillering was maximized and phyllochrons are shortened resulted in acceleratedgrowth rate and reduced tillers mortality. The minimum number of tillers m72 wasrecorded under aerobic rice cultivation in both the seasons, which might be due tothe lack of adequate soil moisture and method of land preparation. Chlorophyllcontent recorded by chlorophyll meter (SPAD 502) indicated that significantlyhigher SPAD values at flowering were noticed with SRI (42.74 and 39.48,respectively), wet seeded rice and transplanted rice as compared to aerobic riceand alternate wetting and drying method.

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Table

1.

Growth

parametersatmaturity

andSPAD

valueatfloweringofrice

asinfluencedbydifferentsystem

sofrice

cultivation.

System

sofrice

cultivation

Summer,2008*

Kharif,2008*

Shoot

length

(cm)

Root

length

(cm)

Tillers

m7

2SPAD

values

atflowering

Shoot

length

(cm)

Root

length

(cm)

Tillers

m7

2SPAD

values

atflowering

Transplantedrice

86.4

a29.0

a391ab

41.35a

85.8

ab

27.6

b410b

38.3

b

System

ofrice

intensification

85.2

a29.2

a414a

42.74a

86.6

a29.5

a448a

39.48ab

Alternate

wetting

anddrying

79.7

b27.4

b362c

40.06b

74.3

c28.1

ab

408b

39.48ab

Wet

seeded

rice

82.7

a28.4

a387b

42.02a

81.2

b28.5

ab

438ab

40.52a

Aerobic

rice

67.2

c22.6

c326d

39.61b

71.2

c24.3

c375c

36.2

c

*Summer,March–July,Kharif,June–September;Meanswithin

columnsfollowed

bythesameletter

are

notsignificantlydifferent(LSD

atp¼

0.05).

162 V. Geethalakshmi et al.

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Yield attributes and grain yield

The influence of different rice cultivation methods on the yield attributes and grainyield are presented in Table 2. The system of rice intensification (SRI) registered asignificantly larger number of productive tillers m72 (383 and 416) than other ricecultivation methods in both the seasons. Transplanted rice and wet seeded rice werecomparable to each other in recording productive tillers m72. A significantly lowernumber of productive tillers m72 was observed under aerobic rice cultivation. Withregard to panicle length, all the systems of rice cultivation were comparable exceptaerobic rice. The higher number of filled grains per panicle was observed with thesystem of rice intensification (117.8 and 130.8), followed by transplanted rice and thealternate wetting and drying method. Grain yield of rice was significantly influencedby different methods of rice cultivation. Among the different rice productionmethods, the system of rice cultivation (SRI) produced significantly higher grain yield(6014 and 6682 kg ha71), followed by transplanted rice (5732 and 6262 kg ha71).Under SRI, 5 and 6.7% increase in grain yield was noticed compared to transplantedrice. Increased grain yield under SRI is mainly due to the synergistic effects ofmodification in the cultivation practices such as use of young and single seedlings perhill, limited irrigation, and frequent loosening of the top soil to stimulate aerobic soilconditions (Stoop et al. 2002). Transplanting of very young seedlings, usually 8–12days old, preserves its potential for tillering and rooting, which was reduced iftransplanted after the occurrence of fourth phyllochron. Further, the combination ofplant, soil, water and nutrient management practices followed in SRI increased theroot growth, along with an increase in productive tillers, grain filling and higher grainweight that ultimately resulted in the maximum grain yield (Uphoff 2001). The lowestgrain yield of 3582 and 3933 kg ha71 was recorded under aerobic rice cultivation.Competition from weeds during the early stage of growth and less soil moisture underaerobic rice might have been the reasons for the poor yield.

Water usage and water productivity

Variation in water usage, water saving and water productivity of rice under differentcultivation systems is presented in Table 3. In summer and kharif seasons, wet seededrice required more number of irrigations (37 and 39), followed by transplanted rice(32 and 33). Under SRI, there was a saving of three and six irrigations, respectively,during summer and kharif seasons compared to transplanted rice. The minimumnumber of irrigations were recorded under alternate wetting and drying methodof rice cultivation (24 and 23), followed by aerobic rice (26 and 24) in both theseasons. Conventional rice cultivation used the higher amount of water (16120 and16802 m3), followed by wet seeded rice and SRI. Aerobic rice used the minimumquantity of water (9687 and 9425 m3, respectively) during both the seasonscompared to other methods.

Maximumwater saving was recorded with aerobic rice (39.9 and 43.9%), followedby alternate wetting and drying method (15.4 and 18.0%, respectively) overtransplanted rice in both the experiments. Water saving under SRI was 12.6 and14.8%, respectively, during summer and kharif seasons. Impounding of 2.5 cm ofirrigation water, irrigation after formation of hairline cracks showed considerablewater saving besides a better root environment in SRI. Similar findings were reportedby Thiyagarajan et al. (2002). Regarding water productivity, the SRI method of rice

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Table

2.

Yield

parametersandgrain

yield

ofrice

asinfluencedbydifferentsystem

sofrice

cultivation.

System

sofrice

cultivation

Summer,2008

Kharif,2008

Productive

tillers(m

2)

Panicle

length

(cm)

Filledgrains

(No./panicle)

Grain

yield

(kgha7

1)

Productive

tillers(m

2)

Panicle

length

(cm)

Filledgrains

(No./panicle)

Grain

yield

(kgha7

1)

Transplantedrice

354bc

23.2

a110.8

ab

5732b

374b

23.3

a121.9

a6262b

System

ofrice

intensification

383a

23.7

a117.8

a6014a

416a

23.3

a130.8

a6682a

Alternate

wetting

anddrying

336c

22.9

a106.5

bc

5376c

381b

23.3

a126.4

a5796c

Wet

seeded

rice

361b

23.1

a102.5

c5175c

402a

23.8

a94.8

b5500c

Aerobic

rice

302d

20.9

b85.2

d3582d

347c

21.6

b86.7

b3933d

Meanswithin

columnsfollowed

bythesameletter

are

notsignificantlydifferent(LSD

atp¼

0.05).

164 V. Geethalakshmi et al.

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Table

3.

Waterusageandwaterproductivity(W

P)ofrice

asinfluencedbydifferentsystem

sofrice

cultivation.

System

sofrice

cultivation

Summer,2008

Kharif,2008

No.of

irrigations

Totalwater

used(m

3ha7

1)

%Watersavingover

transplantedrice

WP(kgm

73)

No.of

irrigations

Totalwater

used(m

3ha7

1)

%Water

savingover

transplantedrice

WP(kgm

73)

Transplantedrice

32

16120

–0.36

33

16802

–0.37

System

ofRice

Intensification

29

14085

12.6

0.43

27

14322

14.8

0.47

Alternate

wetting

anddrying

24

13636

15.4

0.39

23

13773

18.0

0.42

Wet

seeded

rice

37

15763

2.2

0.33

39

15683

6.7

0.35

Aerobic

rice

26

9687

39.9

0.37

24

9425

43.9

0.42

Data

statisticallynotanalyzed;WP,waterproductivity.

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cultivation registered the highest water productivity (0.43 and 0.47 kg m73), followedby AWD and aerobic rice cultivation during both the seasons. The conventional ricecultivation (0.36 and 0.37 kg m73 in summer and kharif, respectively), and directsown rice produced lower grain yield per unit quantity of water used.

Thus, rice cultivation through the system of rice intensification increased thegrain yield by 5–7% besides savings of water by 12–15% over the conventionalmethod of rice cultivation under a wetland ecosystem.

Conclusion

From the field experiments, it could be concluded that, apparently, the cultivation ofrice under SRI has advantages in terms of growth, yield characters, grain yield andwater productivity of rice compared to other methods of rice cultivation owing to itssynergistic effects of different cultivation practices followed in SRI. Furtherexperiments are necessary to approve SRI as a viable rice cultivation method undera water limited wetland ecosystem.

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Bouman BAM, Xiaoguang Y, Huaqui W, Zhiming W, Junfang Z, Changgui W, Bin C. 2002.Aerobic rice (Han Dao): A new way of growing rice in water short areas. Proceedings ofthe 12th International Soil Conservation Organization Conference, May 26–31. Beijing,China. Tsinghua University. p. 175–181.

Garcia FV, Peng S, Laza MRC, Sanico AL, Cassman KG. 1994. Growth characteristics andyield of wet seeded and transplanted rice at high yield level. International Rice ResearchInstitute, Los Banos, Laguna, Philippines. Agronomy Plant Physiology and Agro ecologyDiv.

Gomez KA, Gomez AA. 1984. Statistical procedures for agricultural research. New York:Wiley and Sons. p. 108–127.

Islam MA. 1987. Photoperiod sensitivity: A neglected issue. Bangladesh Rice ResearchInstitute. Proceedings of the International Seminar on Photo period sensitive transplantrice. Oct. 1977, Dacca. p. 10–11.

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Rogers DH, Thomas JG. 1978. Guidelines for use of irrigation water meters. CooperativeExtension Service Publication MF-467. Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas.

Stoop WA, Uphoff N, Kassam A. 2002. A review of agricultural research issues raised by thesystem of rice intensification (SRI) from Madagascar: Opportunities for improvingfarming systems for resource poor farmers. Agric Syst. 71:249–274.

Thiyagarajan TM, Selvaraju R. 2001. Water saving in rice cultivation in India. Proceedingsof an International Workshop on Water Saving Rice Production Systems. April 2–4, 2001.p. 15–45.

Thiyagarajan TM, Velu V, Ramasamy S, Durgadevi D, Govindarajan K, Priyadarshini R,Sudhalakshmi C, Senthilkumar K, Nisha PT, Gayathry G, Hengsdijk H, Bindraban PS.2002. Effect of SRI practices on hybrid rice performance in Tamil Nadu, India. In:Bouman BAS, Hengsdijk H, Hardy B, Bindraban PS, Tuong TP, Ladha JK, editors.Water-wise rice production. IRRI and Plant Research International (PRI). p. 119–127.

Uphoff N. 2001. Scientific issue raised by the system of rice intensification: A less-water ricecultivation system. Proceedings of an International Workshop on Water Saving RiceProduction Systems. April 2–4, 2001. Nanjing University, China.

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