MSc

The present investigation on “Integrated crop management of rice under System of Rice Intensification (SRI)” was conducted at Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Vellayani during 2012-2013 for evaluating the efficacy of integrated input management for increasing the soil, crop and water productivity of transplanted rice grown under SRI in an economically viable mode.
The experiment was laid out in Factorial RBD with seven treatments and three replications. The treatments consisted of two levels of seed priming, viz, primed seeds (P1) and non primed seeds (P2), three levels of fertilizer combinations viz, RFD of N, P and K @ 90-45-45 kg ha-1 as fertilizers (F1), RFD of N, P and K @ 90-45-45 kg ha-1 as combination of vermicompost to supply 30 kg N equivalent and rest as chemical fertilizer (F2) and seventy five per cent of RFD of N, P and K @ 67.5- 33.75 -33.75 as combination of vermicompost to supply 30 kg N equivalent and rest as fertilizer (F3) and standard check (conventional flooded transplanted rice at 20 cm x 10 cm spacing following POP recommendations). The results of the investigation are summarised below.
The growth attributes like tillers hill-1 at panicle initiation stage, LAI, RGR, root length and total dry matter production were not significantly influenced by the treatment priming but it significantly influenced the root dry matter production. Grain yield was significantly influenced by seed priming treatment. The other yield attributes like productive tillers hill-1 and m-2, mean panicle weight, mean number of grains panicle-1, mean number of spikelets panicle-1 and straw yield were not significantly influenced by seed priming.
Fertilizer combinations had significant influence on growth attributes like tillers hill-1 at panicle initiation stage, latent tillers at flowering stage, root DMP and total DMP. Yield attributes like number of productive tillers hill-1 and m-2 and mean number of spikelets panicle-1 were significantly influenced by fertilizer combinations. Fertilizer combination F1 produced significantly higher number of productive tillers hill-1 and m-2.
The treatment combination p1f1 recorded highest value for growth attributes like LAI, root DMP and total DMP. For yield and yield attributes like productive tillers hill-1 and m-2, mean number of spikelets panicle-1 and grains panicle-1 p1f1 recorded highest value. Also p1f1 recorded highest grain yield. The net return and B: C ratio was the highest in p1f1.
There was 23.3 per cent savings (2449 m3 ha-1) in the water requirement of the crop under SRI. Nutrient supply in SRI can be successfully practiced economically with chemical fertilizers. Source integration for nutrient supply (fertilizers+ vermicompost) did not give any additional yield advantage, but was costlier. Seed priming in combination with N, P and K at level of RFD is advantageous as it yielded the highest B: C ratio of 1.62 compared to 1.25 for conventional transplanting. Water productivity in SRI (0.84 kg m-3) was 175 per cent of that of conventional method (0.48 kg m-3). However soil productivity was not favorably influenced as prolonged soil exposure contributes to higher soil acidity problems.
From the study it can be concluded that SRI method of rice cultivation can significantly increase rice productivity, profitability and water productivity over conventional method of transplanting.