EFFECT OF VARIETY AND ROW SPACING ON THE GROWTH AND YIELD OF AUS RICE

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted at the field laboratory of the Department of Agronomy, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Sher-e-Bangla Nagar, Dhaka, during the period from April to August 2010 to investigate the effect of variety and row spacing on morpho-physiological characters, yield attributes and yield of Aus rice. The experiment comprised four varieties viz., BR26, BRRI dhan42, BRRI dhan43 and BRRI dhan48 and four row spacings viz. 15, 20, 25 and 30 cm. The plant to plant distance was 15 cm. The experiment was laid out in two factors randomized complete block design with three replications. The morpho-physiological parameters such as plant height, effective and non-effective tiller number hill-1, total tiller number hill-1, total dry mass (TDM) hill-1, absolute growth rate (AGR), relative growth rate (RGR), grain yield, harvest index (HI), and yield attributes were significantly influenced by row spacing in rice. Results revealed that plant height increased with decreasing row spacing while number of effective tillers, non-effective tillers and total tillers plant-1, TDM hill-1, AGR and RGR, filled and unfilled grains hill-1 increased with increasing row spacing but in case of unit area basis, the seed and straw yield and HI were greater at closer row spacing than wider row spacing. The higher grain and straw yield per hectare and HI were observed in 15 and 20 cm row spacings compared to 25 to 30 cm spacings with being the highest in 20 cm row spacing (3.42 and 5.68 t ha-1 for grain and straw yield, respectively). While the lowest seed and straw yield per hectare was recorded in 30 cm row spacing. Among the varieties, BRRI dhan48 was superior in relation to plant height, TDM hill-1, AGR, RGR, total tiller number hill-1 and 1000-grain weight which resulted the highest grain yield hectare-1 (3.97 t ha-1. In contrast, the lowest above studied parameters were observed in BRRI dhan42 and resulted the lowest grain yield per hectare (2.58 t ha-1). The interaction effect of variety and row spacing on plant parameters was significant except 1000-grain weight. BRRI Dhan 48 in combination with any of the 4 spacings produced higher grain yield t ha-1 than each of the combination made by the rest 3 varieties with the spacings and the highest grain yeild is 4.40 t ha-1 was obtained by the variety BRRI Dhan 48 with the spacings 20 cm. BR 26 in the interaction effect performed better than those of BRRI Dhan 42 and BRRI Dhan 43 and the lowest yield 1.90 t ha-1 was obtained by BRRI Dhan 42 with 30 cm spacing.