Growing Direct Seeded Rice

Amongst different moisture levels applied, scheduling of irrigation at IW/CPE = 2.0 recorded maximum growth, yield and yield attributes of direct seeded rice suggesting that rice can be grown using less water in non-puddled aerobic condition using supplementary irrigation in soil just like upland crops without much decrease in yield. With higher level of irrigation up to IW/CPE = 2.0 irrigation regime, maximum uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium by aerobic rice was noticed, comparing with other irrigation level tried which indicates that absorption of nutrient is not disturb if only optimum, not in excess, amount of moisture was supplied in vicinity of the root zone. Both moisture levels up to field capacity and planting techniques are equally useful in enhancing the grain yield of rice under aerobic conditions and pre-germination process synchronizing the irrigation schedule only when needed would enable to curb the negative effects of terminal moisture stress and result in optimum grain yield of the rice crop.

Prof. (Dr) Aftabuz Zaman specializes in Agricultural Water Management for enhancing crop and water productivity as an Agronomist and formerly acted as Dean, Director of Research and HoD, Agronomy, BCKV, West Bengal, India. Worked as Head, Irrigation Expatriate Team, Uganda. Presently worked as PC, ADMIP (World Bank funded) Irrigation Project.