Author(s): K. Patra, P. Singha and B. Mitra

Abstract: An experiment was conducted in rice-wheat system under eastern sub-Himalayan plains of West Bengal toevaluate the performance of predominant rice and wheat varieties under alternate crop establishment techniques. The experiment was laid out in a splitplot design having 20 treatment combinations in 3 replicates. Four different crop establishment methods [Direct seeded rice(DSR), bed planting(BP), unpuddled transplanting(UPTR) and puddled transplanting(PTR) for rice and surface seeding (SS), bed planting(BP), zero tillage(ZT) and conventional tillage(CT) for wheat] in main plots and five different varieties (Swarna sub 1, Pratiksha, IET 5656, Naveen and MTU 7029 for rice and PBW 343, K 0307, K 1006, DBW 39 and HD 2967 for wheat) in sub plots were allocated randomly for both rice and wheat. It was revealed from the results that the growth parameters of rice (plant height, number of tillers m^-2, dry matter accumulation and LAI) recorded at different stages of growth differed significantly with various crop establishment techniques and in all the stages of observation the values were superior in PTR in the first year and in UPTR in the second year. PTR produced significantly higher number of matured panicles m^-2(323 and 331 during 2015 and 2016, respectively),but there was no significant difference in number of matured panicles m^-2 between PTR and UPTR in second year.In the first year PTR recorded significantly higher grain yield (4502kg ha^-1), while UPTR recorded maximum grain yield(4616 kg ha^-1) during second year of experimentation, being at par with PTR( 4606 kg ha^-1) . Swarna Sub 1 (3779 kg ha^-1) in first year and Pratiksha (4215 kg ha^-1) in second year recorded maximum grain yield. In both the years of experimentation, BP in wheat resulted in maximum dry matter accumulation, tiller production, LAI as well as CGR, being at par with ZT in most of the growth parameters.BP (3713 and 3699 kg ha^-1 during 2015-16 and 2016-17, respectively) recorded significantly higher grain yield in both the years of experimentation. This was followed by ZT (3454 and 3492 kg ha^-1 during 2015-16 and 2016-17, respectively). The yield increase under BP was 8.12 and 14.52% over CT during 2015-16 and 2016-17, respectively.In the first year, HD 2967 recorded the highest grain yield (3580 kg ha^-1), while DBW 39 was the highest yielder (3392 kg ha^-1) in second year. Both the varieties were statistically at par in terms of grain yield in both the years of experimentation.Considering the above results, it can be concluded that Pratiksha and Swarna Sub 1 in rice and HD 2967 in wheat performed better in conservation agriculture (CA)-based management options.

Download Full Article: Click Here