STUDY ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF SOME RICE CULTIVARS UNDER DIFFERENT SALINITY

Abstract

A pot culture experiment was conducted to study the effect of salinity on growth and yield of rice during the Boro season (December-June) of the year 2008-09 at the Sher-eBangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1 207. Four rice varieties namely Pokkali. BR 28. BRRJ dhan 29 and JR 29 and five salinity levels (0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 dS m4) were imposed in the experiment. Plant height. root length, root dry weight, shoot dry weight, effective tiller hilY', non-effective tiller hilF' panicle length. number of filled and unfilled grain panicle4, thousand grain weight, yield hill1 of the rice varieties were measured as parameters. The results indicated that significant varietal differences were found in panicle length, effective tiller hill1, number of filled and unfilled grain, thousand grain weight, yield hill* Plant height was highest at control salinity treatment and lowest in the maximum salinity level (12 dS ni') for every cultivar. Similar results were observed in case of root length, root dry weight and shoot dry weight. The total dry matter content also negatively affected by salinity where 12 dS nf' showed lowest values for each of the cultivars. Number of effective tiller hill1, panicle length and number of filled grain panicle" decreased with increasing salinity. On the other hand, number of non-effective tiller hill1 increased with the increasing level of salinity and the highest values were obtained from maximum salinity level. Thousand grain weight and grain yield hill' showed negative relationship with salinity and also significantly showed varietal difference.