Evaluation of Water Saving Irrigation and Nitrogen Levels on Rice Production and N-use . Efficiency in Light Textured Soil of Western · Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

The investigation entitled "Evaluation of Water Saving Irrigation and Nitrogen Fertilizer on Rice Production and N-use Efficiency in Light Textured Soil of Western Uttar Pradesh" was carried out at the Crop Research Centre of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture & Technology, Meerut, U.P. during kharif season of 2014. The experiment consisting of four planting techniques viz., T1 Transplanted rice after reduced tillage (RT-TPR), T2 Transplanted rice on narrow raised beds (N Bed-TPR), T3Transplanted rice on wide raised beds (W Bed-TPR) and T4 Conventional puddled transplanted rice (CT-TPR) in main plot and five nitrogen levels treatment~ viz. N1- 0 (No) ha-1 (Control), N2- 75% ofRDN (N75) ha·t, N3- 10••% ofRDN (N100) ha-1, N4 -125% ofRDN (N12s) ha-1 and Ns -150% of RDN {Ntso) ha-1 in sub pl<.,t was laid out in a split plot design with three replications. The plant height and dry matter accumulation increased with various planting techniques and with the improvement in moisture supply and reached maximum at harvest. Among the yield attributes panicle length, filled grains panicle-1 and 1000 grain weight were increased significantly in transplanted rice on wide raised beds. The improvement in grain yield 8.3 and 5.9% due to transplanted rice under conventional and on wide raised beds, respectively over transplanted rice on narrow raised beds methods. Transplanted rice on wide raised beds increased the water use efficiency of 15.46 kg grain ha-1 rom. The per cent increased in water use efficiency under wide raised beds over conventional tillage was 17.7 %during the year of study. Quality characters of basmati rice like amylase content, water uptake ratio, elongation ratio, length:width ratio of cooked milled rice and minimum cooking time were statistically at par among different planting techniques. The maximum bulk density recorded from top 0-15 em depth and the contribution of 15-30 em soil layers was 6.8 per cent. Transplanted rice after reduced tillage recorded higher bulk density and more contribution from top layer. Soil penetration resistance recorded lower under raised beds plots as compared to reduced tillage and conventional tillage treatments, respectively. The plant height was higher in nitrogen levels Ns while dry matter accumulation, number of effective tillers and among the yield attributes panicle length, filled grains panicle-1 and test weight, grain and straw were significantly higher in Ns over rest of nitrogen levels. The increase in nitrogen levels increased theN (6.6 o/o), P (23.5 %) and K (20.9 %) over N3 and N (24.2 and 34.5 %), P (33.8 and 38.1 %) and K (26.2 and 57.6 %) over N2 in N 1 treatment during the year of study, respectively. The apparent recovery of N also increased by 9.2 % over N3, 11.4 and 47.6 % over N2 in Nt treatment during the year of experimentation, respectively. The highest net profit (Rs 44181 ha-1 and Rs with B: C ratio of 1.69 was recorded in N4 125% of RDN (N125) ha- 1 • Grain quality like amylase content (%) elongation ratio, minimwn cooking time and length: width ratio of cooked milled rice was higher with N5 150% of RON (N150) ha-1 nitrogen level as compared to other nitrogen levels. However, N 1 0 (N0) ha-1 (Control) nitrogen level recorded higher value of wat,er uptake f ·