EFFECTS OF SALINITY ON GROWTH AND YIELD PERFORMANCE OF SOME RICE (Orpza saliva L.) CULTIVARS

Abstract

A pot culture experiment was conducted to study the effect of salinity on growth and yield of rice during the Aman season (June- December) of the year 2010 at the Shcr-eBangla Agricultural University, Dhaka-1207. Four rice cultivars namely Sadamota BRRI dhan40. Ueera and Lalmota and five salinity levels (0. 3, 6. 9 and 12 dS rn") were imposed in the experiment. Durircg the experiment, plant height, relative root length, relative root dry weight, relative shoot dry weight, relative total dry matter, effective tiller hilL non-effective tiller hill", panicle length. number of filled and unfilled grains panicl&'. thousand grain weight and yield hill" of the rice cultivars were measured. The results indicated that all the parameters have significant varietal differences among them. The tallest plants were found in Sadamota and Lalmota cultivars while shortest plants were obtained from Ileera. But relative shoot dry weight and relative total dry matter were highest in Heera as it contained maximum effective and non-effective tillers hill'. Paniele length. number of filled grains panicle". thousand grain weight and grain yield hill" were highest in Heera and lowest in BRRI dhan40 and Lalmota due to the mean effect of five salinity levels. Plant height was highest at control salinity treatment and lowest in the maximum salinity level (12 dS rn") for every cultivar. Similar results were observed in case of relative root dry weight, relative shoot dry weight, relative total dry matter, number of effective tillers hill'. panicle length and number of filled grains paniele" for each of the cultivars. All the parameters decreased with increasing salinity but this decreasing tendency was slower in Heera than other cultivars. On the other hand, number of non-effective tillers hill' and unfilled grain panicle" increased with the increasing level of salinity and the highest values were obtained from maximum salinity level in BRRI dhan40. At the highest (12 dS in") level of salinity, significantly better performance for thousand grain weight and grain yield hill" was given by 1-leera while BRRI dhan40 was the most badly affected one by salinity.