INCREASING RICE PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION (SRI) AT DISTRICT SWAT

Abstract

System of rice intensification (SRI) has been recently developed in which during the vegetative growth period, soil is kept in moist condition after transplanting young seedling singly in square pattern with spacing 25 × 25 cm2. SRI is gaining recognition by farmers of many rice growing regions of the world for raising their rice productivity under limited water supply. However information on (SRI) is limited in Pakistan. Therefore, an on- farm study was conducted during 2010 and 2011 with an objective to access the performance of different chemical fertilizers on three local rice varieties under SRI and conventional management practices at Agricultural Research Institute (North) Mingora (Swat). The experiment was laid out in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with split plot arrangement and three replications. The two cultural practices, i.e., (1) SRI: transplanting 15 days old single seedling in a square arrangement with 25 × 25 cm2 spacing, and during the vegetative growth period, keeping the soil in moist condition, and (2) Traditional management practices, and having three rice cultivars and the names were (1) Dilrosh-97, (2) JP-5, and (3) Fakhre Malakand were assigned to main plots, whereas the fertilizer treatments were assigned to sub-plots (4m × 5m). Treatments of fertilizer were comprised, T1 = Control, T2 = 100-0-0-0 kg N-P2O5-K2O-Zn ha-1, T3 = 100-60-0-0 kg N-P2O5-K2O-Zn ha-1, T4 = 100-60-40-0 kg N-P2O5-K2O-Zn ha-1, and T5 = 100-60-40-20 kg N-P2O5-K2O-Zn ha-1. Before transplanting the phosphorous and potassium and half of the nitrogen fertilizers were incorporated into the soil. 7-10 days after transplanting zinc was applied,and the remaining half of N and P was applied in two equal splits at 25-30 days and 45-55 days after transplanting.The results showed statistically significant increase in panicles plant-1 number,tillers plant-1 number, height of plant, length of panicle, number of grains panicle-1, biological yield, paddy yield,thousand-grain weight,harvest index and dry weight of plant enhanced by 9.4%, 8.9%, 10.3%, 9.9%, 9.6%, 6.9%, 4.4%, 1.3%, 9.3% and 15.6% respectively under SRI as compared to the conventional cultivation practices. Among rice varieties Fakhre- Malakand outperformed the other rice varieties under the SRI practices. Similarly, compared to control, T5 improved panicles plant-1 number,height of plant, tillers plant-1 number , length of panicle, number of grains panicle-1, hilum yield, paddy yield, harvest index, thousand-grain weight and dry weight of plant of rice by 38.6%, 37.9%, 34.4%, 37.7%, 40.1%, 12.4%, 39.0%, 21.9%, 39.5%, and 66.1% respectively. It may be concluded from the study that system of rice intensification is a better method for rice cultivation as water accessibility is the major problem in rice production at district Swat. Furthermore, rice variety, Fakhre Malakand proved to be a suitable variety under SRI management practice and may be used to obtain higher rice production, where availability of irrigation water is limited.