EFFECT OF METHODS OF CROP ESTABLISHMENT ON YIELD OF DIFFERENT AUS RICE VARIETIES

Abstract

An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy Research Field, Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science and Technology University, Dinajpur during the period from March to July, 2007 to evaluate the effect of broadcast seeding and drum seeding on three modern aus varieties viz. BR3, BR14 and BR26. Crop establishment methods showed a significant effect on yield and yield components. Drum seeded rice yielded higher than broadcast seeded rice. The higher yield (3.73 t ha™') was obtained from T2 (direct seeded double row) method due to higher number of effective tillers m‘, and higher number of grains m™. The other two drum seeding method T, (direct seeded thin row) and T; (direct seeded thick row) produced statistically identical grain yield of 2.88 t ha” and 3.05 t ha" respectively while for broadcasting grain yield record was 2.54 t ha’. Mainly higher percentage of spikelet sterility, lower number of tillers and less grain weight caused yield loss in broadcast seeded rice. The results indicated that BR14 significantly produced higher grain yield compared to BR3 and BR26. The grain yield performance of BR26 is slightly higher than that of BR3.