Effect of differential nitrogen management practices on growth, yield and water use efficiency of rice under varying moisture regimes

Abstract

Pot experiments were conducted during 2018and 2019 at the College of Agriculture, Central Agricultural University, Imphal, Manipur, India to investigate the effect of different nitrogen management practices on growth, yield and water use efficiency of rice variety “CAU R1” under varying moisture regimes. Keeping this rationale, three nitrogen management practices {60 kg N/ha (Urea), 40 kg N/ha (Urea) + 20 kg N/ha equivalent FYM, 30 kg N/ha (Urea) + 15 kg N/ha equivalent FYM + 15 kg N/ha equivalent Azolla and three levels of moisture regime {continuous flooding (5 cm depth), no standing water (wetting soil just after hairy cracks appear), 5 cm water depth at tillering, panicle initiation and flowering stage} were tested in a Factorial Randomized Block Design and replicated thrice. Overall, the results of investigational findings indicated that the integrated approach of nitrogen management viz. 50% RDN through Urea + 25% RDN through FYM + 25% through Azolla with maintenance of 5 cm water depth at tillering, panicle initiation and flowering stage markedly improved growth and yield attributes and subsequently yield and water use efficiency of rice as compared to conventional method of nitrogen supplementation through fertilizer. Multivariate principal component analysis and stepwise regression showed that number of tillers/hill is the most important yield attributing characters implicated in augmenting the rice yield significantly.

Keywords

• Growth
• Nitrogen
• Moisture
• Rice
• Yield