Economic Effect of Different Plant Establishment Technoques on Rice, Oryza Sativa Production

Tahir Hussain Awan, Inalyat Ali, M. Ehsan Safdar, Mirza M. Ashraf and Muhammad Yaqub

Abstract
Economic effect of different plant establishment techniques on rice (Oryza sativa L.) production was studied at Rice Research Institute, Kala Shah Kaku, Lahore during kharif season 2001-2002 and 2002-2003. In this experiment, seven planting techniques were compared with the conventional method of transplanting. Five direct seeding techniques (drilling of soaked seed in wattar soil, drilling of soaked seed on raised beds-2 rows on each bed, drilling of soaked seed in zero-tilled soil, broadcasting of soaked seed in wattar soil and broadcasting of sprouted seed in puddled soil) and three transplanting techniques (parachute transplanting, line transplanting and farmer method of random transplanting) were included. The results showed that plant height, productive tillers/m2, filled grains per panicle, 1000 grain weight, root length and paddy yield were significantly high in line transplanting and minimum in drill sowing of soaked seed in zero-tilled soil. Sterility was low in line transplanting (12.53%) and farmer method of random transplanting (13.07%) but high in drilling of soaked seed in zero-tillage (16.05%) and broadcasting of soaked seed in wattar soil (15.38%). Economics of planting methods showed that cost-benefit-ratio increased in case of line transplanting (1:1.62) due to maximum paddy yield followed by drilling in zero tilled soil (1:1.47). Although paddy yield in zero tillage drilling was the lowest but the cost-benefit ratio was better than the other six methods due to less cultivation cost. The lowest benefit was obtained in case of farmers practice (random transplanting).

Keywords: Oryza sativa, sowing methods; seedlings; broadcasting; agronomic characters; Pakistan.

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