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Volume 6, Issue 4, August Issue - 2018, Pages:684-689


Authors: D. Saveipune, Thomas Abraham, Vivek Tripathi, Sunil Simon
Abstract: On Farm Adaptive Research experiment was conducted during the Kharif season 2013 to assess the effect of crop geomerty in the context of climate change on productivity of rainfed rice (Oryza sativa L). Experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) with 3 treatments  viz., 20 cm x 20 cm + Matka khad; 20 cm x 20 cm + neem and tobacco extract and 20 cm x 15 cm + inorganic fertilizers, conventional practice, each treatment replicated 9 times. Results of study revealed that significantly higher grain yield (7.78 t/ha), straw yield (17.06 t/ha), test weight (24.99 g) panicle length of (21.12 cm) were recorded in the treatment with 20 cm x 20 cm spacing + neem and tobacco extract. Further, this treatment has higher grain yield (15.17%), test weight (2.96%) and panicle length (17.66%) over the 20 cm x 15 cm spacing + inorganic fertilizersAlso this treatment has 12 and 32.65 % higher straw yield as compared to 20 cm x 20 cm spacing + Matka khad  and 20 cm x 15 cm spacing + inorganic fertilizers respectively. Number of tillers/panicle in treatment containing 20 cm x 20 cm spacing + neem and tobacco extract (17.06) was statistically not different than the 20 cm x 20 cm spacing + Matka khad (17.89).  The panicle length (20.54 cm) and test weight (24.83 g) at spacing 20 cm x 15 cm + inorganic fertilizers was found to be statistically at par with 20 cm x 20 cm spacing + neem and tobacco extract (24.99 g). Further, highest CGR (7.88 g/m2/day) and RGR (0.041 g/g/day) were recorded in treatment with 20 cm x 15 cm spacing + inorganic and 20 cm x 20 cm + Matka khad.. While maximum number of grains/panicle (136.67) was recorded in the treatment having 20 cm x 20 cm spacing + neem and tobacco extract.
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Full Text: 1 Introduction Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is an important staple crop in Asia, including India. More than half of the world populations are dependent on rice; in India rice crop plays a vital role in ensuring nation’s food security and is a means of livelihood for millions of rural households. India has largest area under rice cultivation (44.6 million ha) with a production of about 104 million tons (Chauhan & Mahajan, 2013). An increase in atmospheric CO2, has a fertilization effect on rice, promoting its growth and productivity. The effect of global warming would have negative influence on rice production due to increased respiration that resulted into shortened vegetative and grain-filling period (Krishnan et al., 2011). Further, increases in temperature might have both positive and negative effects on crop yields, in general, temperature increases have been found to reduce yields and quality of many crops, most importantly cereal and food grains. Increases in precipitation (i.e. level, timing and variability) may benefit semi-arid and other water short areas by increasing soil moisture, but could aggravate problems in regions with excess water, while a reduction in rainfall could have the opposite effect (Reddy & Reddy, 2016).  Rain fed crops are likely to be worse hit by climate change because of the limited mechanisms of coping with variability of precipitation. Thus, adaptation in rain fed rice production can be seen as a promising entry point to buffer the consequences of climate change amongst the poorest of the poor (Wassmann & Dobermann, 2007) and to achieve overall development of agriculture in the country. It is essential to bridge the yield gaps, enhance the productivity and profitability, minimize risk and improve the livelihoods of millions of people dependent on rain fed agriculture (NRAA, 2012). Agriculture in Madhya Pradesh, especially for small and marginal farmers in rain fed areas is perceived to be increasingly unviable owing to yield and price risk and lack of risk mitigation mechanism. Only about 50% of the 90 lakh operational land holdings have been covered with credit and the per hectare agricultural credit is lower than that of many states, pointing at the need for concerted efforts of the banks in improving farm credit scenario in the State. Marginal & small farmers account for more than two thirds (71%) and hold around one third (34%) of total area. This restricts farm mechanization and affects production and productivity (NABARD, 2014). Adaptive research is designed to adjust technology to the specific needs of a particular set of environmental conditions by taking into account the different bio-physical and socio-economic circumstances of the farmers. The concept of “On Farm Adaptive Research” (OFAR) entails full farmers’ participation, by direct contact between researchers and farmers and concerted multi- disciplinary investigation of farmers’ situations (Adeola et al., 2014).  According to Mahapatra & Behera (2011), the strategy for OFAR has to be a “bottom-up” approach, which was certainly implemented and evident during the course of trial in Satna District of Madhya Pradesh. During the process of base line and secondary review of SHF collective through interactive sessions, most of the farmers’ revealed that they raised rice crop without any consistent spacing and mostly preferred closer spacing. However, closer plant spacing reduces the number of effective tillers and increases the tiller mortality. Rasool et al. (2013) reported that the plant spacing of 20 ×20 cm significantly recorded higher panicle length, panicle weight more spikelets/panicle, grain/ panicle as compared to 15 × 20 cm and 15 × 15 cm spacing. The wider spacing adopted appears to be an advantageous factor for better development of panicles, hence more panicle length, panicle weight, spikelets number and filled grains panicle. Wider spacing coupled with higher number of seedlings/hill accumulate maximum amount of dry matter as productivity of tillers as well as dry matter yield will be lower with closer spacing (Hasanuzzama et al., 2009), number of tillers/m2 was significantly higher in wider spacing with 20 cm × 20 cm as compared to other planting geometry (Rajput et al., 2016). According to Gautam et al. (2008),  proper planting geometry have more advantages such as, to maximize light utilization efficiency, improves aeration within crop canopy, enhances soil respiration and provides better weed control thereby higher crop yields. Soil organic matter content (2.1%) was maintained in FYM containing treatments (2.15–2.17%), while declining with inorganic treatments (Paul et al., 2013). Adopting organic fertilization (compost, animal, and green manure) is widely found to have positive effects on the yields (Branca et al., 2013). According to Abraham & Lal (2002) application of biological and organic manures not only supplies a balanced amount of micronutrients but also improve the physico-chemical and biological properties of soil. Agronomic management is the most important input for getting potential yield and high net returns in any crop. Therefore, the study was undertaken to find out the effect of different agronomic management practices (proper plant spacing, organic component and agronomic analysis) for enhanced productivity of rice on the farmers’ fields with the objectives of finding out the effect of climate change on rice productivity; effect of crop geometry on rain fed rice and effect of cultural practices on growth and yield of rice. 2 Materials and Methods The field experiment was carried out as an On Farm Adaptive Research during kharif season 2013 in 9 villages of Satna district of Madhya Pradesh. The district physiographic aspect of the area was Latitude 23° 58' to 25° 12' N, Longitude 80° 21' to 81° 23' E, Altitude 313 m. The soil was sandy clay loam (Bouyoucos hydrometer method proposed by Bouyoucos, 1927) with pH 7.51 (Glass electrode pH meter by Jackson, 1973). Study area soil was moderately fertile with medium organic carbon (0.41%) (Walkley and Black method proposed by Jackson, 1973). Further, presence of medium nitrogen (190.00 kg/ha), P (9.42 kg/ha) and K (299.00 kg/ha) was estimated by alkaline permanganate method (Subbiah & Asija, 1956), Olsen method (Olsen et al., 1954) and Flame Photometer method (Toth & Prince, 1949) respectively. The average maximum and minimum temperature during the experimentation period was recorded in June (34.90 oC) and November (10.74 oC) respectively. The highest relative humidity was 92.29% in October while it was reported 39.25% in November and total rainfall of 1367.10 mm was obtained in 80 rainy days, major part of which was received in the month of August during experimentation. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with 3 treatments and 9 replications. Different treatments of transplanted rice were 20 cm x 20 cm spacing + Matka khad,  20 cm x 20 cm spacing + neem and tobacco extract and 20 cm x 15 cm spacing + inorganic fertilizers, conventional practice. The Matka khad was prepared by mixing 2 kg neem (Azadirachta indica) leaves + 2 kg akaua (Calotropis gigantea) leaves + 1 litre cow urine + 2 kg cow dung + 250g jaggery. Final combination of Matka khad (5%) was prepared by adding 500 ml prepared and filtered solution in 10 liters of water, and applied as foliar spray 3 times at fortnightly intervals. Treatment neem and tobacco extract was prepared by mixing 1 kg neem (A. indica) leaves and 1 kg tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum) leaves. Rest preparation and application procedure was similar to the Matka khad. The inorganic fertilizers, conventional practice treatment containing 108.69 kg DAP/ha and 175.00 kg urea/ha. Half of the phosphorus was applied as basal along with supplement of nitrogen within 3-5 days after transplanting. The remaining amount of phosphorus was applied in two equal split at fortnightly intervals. The remaining amount of nitrogen was applied as top dressing at fortnightly intervals, as per the prevailing practice of the farmers’ in the region. FYM 10 t/ha was applied 7 days before transplanting in all the treatments. All the observations were taken from the four tagged hills which tagged randomly in each plot. The crop was harvested separately from two random quadratic area of 2.0 m2 in each plot ensuring exclude the border rows and sampling rows. The net plots were harvested, tied, tagged and left in the field to dry for 2–3 days. Threshing was done manually after recording the weight of the total produce of an individual plot. After proper cleaning and winnowing, the grain weight of each plot at 14% moisture was recorded. All the data pertaining to growth, yield attributes and yield were recorded. The data related to each parameter of the experiment were statistically analyzed as per procedure of analysis of variance using F-test. 3 Results and Discussion 3.1 Growth parameters The plant height in treatment having 20 cm x 20 cm spacing + neem and tobacco extract (101.21 cm) was recorded significantly over treatment with 20 cm × 20 cm spacing + Matka khad  (90.09 cm) and 20 cm × 15 cm spacing + inorganic fertilizers, conventional practice (89.75 cm) (Table 1). The highest plant height was recorded with plant spacing 20 cm × 20 cm it might be because of optimum condition for light reception, photosynthesis, water and nutrient consumption and less competition (Roshan et al., 2011). Further,  According to Ogbodo et al. (2010) wider spacing produced plants with more vigorous growth and larger plant size which normally increases photosynthetic efficiency, increased availability of nutrients utilization and greater accessibility of nutrients for plant. Treatment with 20 cm × 20 cm spacing + Matka khad (17.89 no. of tillers/hill) recorded significantly higher tillers/hill (34.71%) over 20 cm × 15 cm + inorganic fertilizers, conventional practice (13.28/hill). However, 20 cm × 20 cm spacing + neem and tobacco extract (17.06/hill) was found statistically similar with the 20 cm × 20 cm spacing + Matka khad. The more vigorous plants with particularly higher tillering ability produce more photosynthate than less vigorous plants of the closer spacing (Ogbodo et al., 2010). Transplanting of rice at a wider spacing produced a significantly higher number of tillers/hill as compared to closer spacing which may be due to increase in available nitrogen levels (Gautam et al., 2008; Bezbaruha et al., 2011; Mohaddesi et al., 2011). According to Rajput et al. (2016) number of tillers/m2 was significantly higher in wider spacing with 20 cm × 20 cm as compared to other planting geometry. Wider spacing resulted in the production of more tillers per stand than closer spacing (Moro et al., 2016). Highest CGR was observed at spacing 20 cm x 15 cm + inorganic fertilizers, conventional practice (7.88 g/m2/day), and RGR at spacing 20 cm × 20 cm + neem and tobacco extract (Table 1). However, it was found to be non significant. Biomass production in a plant community is positively correlated with crop growth rate and wider spacing recorded more CGR as observed by Rao et al. (1998) in sorghum. The increase in LAR in the rice grown at 30/24°C as reported by Nagai & Makino (2009) may have led to an increase in RGR. 3.2 Yield Parameters The panicle length in the treatment with 20 cm × 20 cm spacing + neem and tobacco extract (21.12 cm) recorded significant and 17.66% higher over 20 cm × 15 cm spacing + inorganic fertilizers conventional practice (17.97cm).  However, 20 cm × 20 cm spacing + Matka khad (20.54 cm) found statistically at par with spacing 20 cm × 20 cm + neem and tobacco extract. The wider spacing adopted appears to be an advantageous factor for better development of panicles, hence more panicle length and it might be because of filled grains/panicle (Bezbaruha et al., 2011; Rasool et al., 2013). The yield attributes viz., panicles/m2, panicle length and filled grains/panicle was significantly influenced by spacing and nutrient management practices (Damodaran et al., 2012). The treatment at spacing 20 cm × 20 cm + neem and tobacco extract (136.67/panicle) recorded maximum number of grains/panicle and this was followed by 20 cm × 20 cm + Matka khad and lowest was recorded at spacing 20 cm × 15 cm + inorganic fertilizers conventional practice (125.70/panicle) (Table 2). However, the number of grains per panicle was found to be non-significant. Fertility of grains and development of grains depend on environmental factors such as nutrition, moisture and light. Wider spacing possibly facilitated the supply of more food materials, moisture and light for the plant and ultimately for development of grain as compared to closer spacing (Tyeb et al., 2013), leading to maximum number of filled grains/panicle and lowest sterile per cent (Gorgy, 2010). Treatment with 20 cm × 20 cm spacing + neem and tobacco extract registered significant and 2.96% higher test weight over 20 cm × 15 cm + inorganic fertilizers, conventional practice. However, treatment with 20 cm × 20 cm spacing + Matka khad was statistically at par with 20 cm × 20 cm spacing + neem and tobacco extract. Adoption of wider spacing for rice transplanting may have resulted in higher grain weight than at closer spacing (Gautam et al., 2008), and due to nutrient management practices (Bezbaruha et al., 2011). The tendency of increasing 1000 grain weight with increased spacing was also observed by Rashid & Khan (2006). Treatment with 20 cm x 20 cm spacing + neem and tobacco extract (7.78 t/ha) recorded significantly higher grain yield over treatment at spacing 20 cm x 20 cm + Matka khad (6.93 t/ha) and 20 cm x 15 cm + inorganic fertilizers, conventional practice (6.69 t/ha) and 20 cm x 20 cm + neem and tobacco extract was 15.17% higher in value than 20 cm x 15 cm + inorganic fertilizers in grain yield. The higher value in grain yield at spacing 20 cm x 20 cm + Matka khad and 20 cm x 20 cm + neem and tobacco extract may be due to the wider spacing. Wider spacing facilitates maximum light interception and better soil aeration (Bezbaruha et al., 2011) and more area of land around them to draw the nutrition and more solar radiation to absorb for better photosynthetic process and hence performed better as individual plant (Mohaddesi et al., 2011) and leading to more dry matter production ultimately resulting in yield enhancement. Moro et al. (2016) reported that wider spacing of 25 cm x 20 cm and 20 cm x 20 cm, produced 8.06 and 7.56 t ha-1 more grain over the closer spacing of 30 cm x 10 cm and 15 cm x 15 cm. Straw yield of treatment with spacing 20 cm x 20 cm + neem and tobacco extract (17.06 t/ha) was significantly higher over treatment at spacing 20 cm x 20 cm + Matka khad (15.11 t/ha) and 20 cm x 15 cm + inorganic fertilizers, conventional practice (86 t/ha). The treatment at spacing 20 cm x 20 cm + neem and tobacco extract was 12% and 32.65% higher in value than treatment at spacing  20 cm x 20 cm + Matka khad and 20 cm × 15 cm + inorganic fertilizers conventional practice in straw yield. DMP is the product of the influence of growth characters like plant height, number of tillers, LAI and efficiencies of the crop to capture available resources (Damodaran et al., 2012). However, it was found non-significant in all the treatments. The harvest index of treatment at spacing 20 cm × 15 cm + inorganic fertilizers conventional practice) (34.18%) was recorded highest, but found non-significant in all the treatments. Conclusion It may be concluded that treatments at spacing  20 cm × 20 cm + neem and tobacco extract and 20 cm × 20 cm + Matka khad were regarded as best in growth, yield attributes and dry matter production. The findings of OFAR through agronomic practices has evinced the stakeholder  farmers’ that this possess better soil health and productivity which is feasible and acceptable. Therefore, this plant spacing enable appropriate agronomic expression. Conflict of Interest The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this research paper
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