The Public Sector’s Role Towards Sustainable Agricultural Economy and Rural Development: Techno-economic Feasibility Analysis of Hybrid Paddy Production

Abstract

Rice is the major food crop and a significant source of foreign exchange of Pakistan. In order to meet food demands, high quality varieties of rice, including early and late maturing varieties, as well as hybrid and conventional rice varieties must be developed with the adoptability and suitability of different hybrid rice varieties in local soil. The hybrid varieties revealed supremacy regarding the growth characters over the inbred rice. The study results pretended that the highest plant height was recorded in hybrid variety ennpova-55 (106.5 cm) while inbred IRRI-9 produced the shortest height (65.5 cm) at reproduction stage. Whereas highest number of tillers was observed in Winner-55, Tahafuz-121, and Ashoka (24 m-2) and have highest seedling number and lowest number of tillers were recorded in Komal 21 m-2. Highest plant dry matter per hill was found in Ennova-55 (95.9/cm and lowest observed in IRRI-9 (69.8 cm) as compared to all other rice verities studied in this study. In chlorophyll studies, highest chlorophyll parameter was observed in Ennova-08 and Pukhraj and lowest was observed only in inbred varieties. Shoot and root length showed significant variation among the different rice varieties. The tallest shoot was found in Ennova-55 (82.3 cm) which was statistically identical with Thafuz-121 (78.1 cm), while shortest was found in IRRI-9 (54.1 cm) at harvest. However, the maximum Leaf area index was recorded from Komal (4.50) at the heading stage followed by Ennova-55 (4.20), but significantly lower in Shakar (2.70). Compared with inbred, hybrid rice produced a higher yield with BCR of 12.03. However, further research studies are obligatory to perform for adoptability of hybrid rice locally for sustainable rice production.

Keywords

• hybrid paddy rice
• physiological characteristics
• grain
• biological yield
• economic analysis