EFFECT OF SPACING AND NITROGEN FERTILIZER LEVEL ON THE YIELD AND QUALITY OF SOME VARIETIES OF AROMATIC RICE

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of spacing and nitrogen level on yield and quality of some varieties of aromatic rice at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh from July to December 2000. (The experiment included three varieties namely, Kalizira, Badshabhog and Tulshimala, four different spacing namely, 8 cmx25 cm, 12 cm x 25 cm, 16 cm x 25 cm and 20 cm x 25 cm and three nitrogen level viz., 40, 60 and 80 kg ha’.\The experiment was laid out in a split-split plot design with three replications. Except only few parameters, (the yield, yield contributing characters, qualitative characters and soil properties were significantly influenced by spacing and nitrogen level in all varieties of aromatic rice. Yield increased with increasing spacing and nitrogen level up to certain limit of all varieties along with the improvement of yield contributing characters) Badshabhog was found significantly superior to Kalizira and Tulshimala with respect to number of grains panicle’, 1000-grain weight, grain yield, and harvest index. Among four spacings, the highest grain yield (2.84 t ha’') was obtained from spacing (16 cm x 25 cm). Among three nitrogen levels, significantly highest grain yield (2.85 t ha”) was obtained from 60kg N ha”. The effect of interaction of spacing and nitrogen, variety and spacing and variety, spacing and nitrogen level was not significant. The effect of spacing and nitrogen level on different qualitative characters viz., nitrogen content (%), nitrogen uptake (kg ha”), protein (%), germination (%), vigour index were significant in all varieties of aromatic rice/ (All the qualitative characters (except aroma and cooking time) were found to increase significantly with the increasing from 8 cm x 25 cm spacing to 16 cm x 25 cm and 40 to 80 kg N ha", respectively. Most of the interaction effect was not significant. Post harvest soil analysis that the organic matter depleted and mining occurred in the case of exchangeable K and available P. The level of total N did not decrease due to nitrogen application.