Evaluation of rice genotypes for its response to added fertility levels and induced drought tolerance during reproductive phase

Rice genotypes responses to added fertility levels and drought

Abstract

When considering the climate change and food security issues of poor, marginalized and vulnerable farmers; In Nepal there is an urgent need to develop rice varieties that respond to drought resistant and less fertilizer responsive. A field research was carried out at agronomy field at Regional Agricultural Research Station, Khajura, Banke, Nepal from June to November 2012-2013 in order to evaluate drought tolerant rice genotypes under different nutrient levels in artificially created stress condition during reproductive stages. The field experiment was conducted in strip plot design with three replications. Three main-plots contain three different levels of fertilizers, each consisting of 14 sub-plots of genotypes. The result revealed that the rice genotypes showed the significant differences for days to flowering, days to maturity and grain yield. Genotype IR83381-B-B-137-1 produced the highest grain yield (3851 kg ha^-1), followed by IR83383-B-B-141-2 (3130 kg ha^-1). The differences was significant for no. of tillers hill ^-1, no. of panicles hill^-1 and biomass yield kg ha^-1. In terms of level of fertilizers; rice genotypes showed significant differences for days to maturity. Interaction effect was observed significant for days to maturity and no. of panicles. The correlation between tillers number hill^-1 and panicle number hill^-1 was the highest (0.994**) and in path analysis for grain yield; direct effect of biomass yield was the highest (0.58134).