Effect of integrated use of organics, zinc and iron on aerobic rice

V.SUMATHI, B.SAGARIKA and D.SUBRAMANYAM

S.V.Agricultural College, Acharya N.G.Ranga Agricultural University, Tirupati-517502, India

Over the centuries, lowland rice has proven to be a remarkably suitable system for rice production mostly because of luxurious water availability. Whereas, the present day water crisis demanding the alternate systems of rice cultivation with low water requirement like aerobic cultivation. In this system due to change in soil physicochemical conditions nutritional deficiencies are common in general and specific with micronutrients. Aruna (2009) reported that though the micronutrients are high in its soil at this zone the rice crop under aerobic cultivation shows the deficiency symptoms. Further, in aerobic situation, limited use of organics and absence of proper recycling of crop residues has also aggravated the symptoms of micronutrients under aerobic system of rice cultivation. Belder et al. (2005) revealed that the aerobic rice production produced less drymatter and yiled that can be improved by need based nutrient application. Keeping all these things as backdrop the present study was undertaken. MATERIALS AND METHODS The field experiment was conducted during rabi, 2010-11 at Tirupati Campus of Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University, Andhra Pradesh, India. The experiment was laid out in a split plot design, replicated thrice. The treatments consisted of three organic management practices, viz., M1-farm yard manure @ 10 t ha-1 , M2- green leaf manure through Glyricidia maculata @ 5 t ha-1, M3- no organics, allotted to main plot and seven micronutrient management practices, viz., S1-soil application of FeSO4 @ 25 kg ha-1 as basal, S2-soil application of ZnSO4 @ 25 kg ha-1 as basal, S3soil application of FeSO4 and ZnSO4 @ 25 kg ha-1 each as basal, S4- foliar application of 0.25% FeSO4 at 20 and 30 DAS, S5- foliar application of 0.50% ZnSO4 at 20 and 30 DAS, S6- foliar application of 0.25% FeSO4 and 0.50% ZnSO4 at 20 and 30 DAS, S7-control (no micronutrient) were allotted to sub plots with Sravani (NLR-33359) as test variety. An uniform dose of 100-50-50 kg N, P2O5 and K2O ha-1 was applied to all the plots. The soils of the experimental site were sandy clay loam in texture, low in organic carbon (0.25%) and available N (188 kg ha-1), high in Phosphorus (26 kg

ha-1), potassium(293 kg ha-1), iron (22.5mg kg-1 of soil) and zinc(2.7mg kg-1 of soil). The recommended package of practices were followed for well being of aerobic rice.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Significantly higher growth stature (plant height, LAI and dry matter production), yield attributes (productive tillers m-2, filled and total number of grains panicle-1 and 1000-grain weight), grain and straw yield was observed with the incorporation of FYM @ 10 t ha -1 (M1), while the lowest was noticed with control (M3). Among the micronutrient management practices tried, foliar application of iron and zinc (S6) resulted in the highest stature of growth parameters, while the lowest values of crop growth parameters were recorded with control (S7). The Interaction between organics and micronutrients was found non significant in altering the above parameters. The grain yield of aerobic rice was higher due to incorporation of FYM as it releases the humates which acted as nutrient reservoir for more availabity of nutrients for enhancing yield attributes there by the grian yield Ramana et al. (2006). FYM incorporation resulted in the highest nutrient uptake by the crop followed by green manure incorporation. The highest uptake of N, P and K by aerobic rice was reported from foliar application of iron and zinc (S6) which was on par with the soil application of iron and zinc. The higher post harvest soil available nutrient status was obtained with the incorporation of FYM, while the lowest values were recorded with no organics (Table 1). Soil application of both the micronutrients increased the post harvest soil nutrient status. Among the micronutrient management practices, the higher post harvest soil available iron and zinc content was reported with the individual application of respective micronutrients either to foliage or soil, which were comparable among themselves. The net returns and benefit cost ratio was higher with the incorporation of FYM followed by green manure application. Among the micronutrient management practices, foliar spraying of both the micronutrients resulted in highest net returns and benefit cost ratio followed by the treatment where both the micro nutrients were applied to soil.

CONCLUSION The study revealed that the highest yield as well as economic returns and post harvest soil nutrient status could be realized in aerobic rice with the incorporation of FYM @ 10 t ha -1 along with combined foliar application of 0.25% FeSO4 and 0.50% ZnSO4 at 20 and 30 DAS.

Table 1: Yield, nutrinet uptake and post harvest dynamics of nutrients as affected by organics and micronutrients on aerobic rice
Treatments Seed yield (kg ha-1 ) Straw yield (kg ha-1 ) Uptake of Iron by crop (g ha-1) 169.0 137.6 107.6 3.1 12.11 162.7 96.2 153.3 209.3 110.0 177.8 57.4 7.84 22.5 Uptake of Zinc by crop (g ha-1) 64.4 55.9 46.6 0.37 1.4 46.8 55.0 61.1 48.3 70.1 69.7 38.4 0.98 2.8 Post harvest soil avilable Iron (ppm) 23.65 19.52 12.59 0.72 2.79 27.26 20.00 25.12 18.55 13.39 15.64 10.16 1.12 3.21 Post harvest soil avilable Zinc (ppm) 2.66 2.29 1.82 0.10 0.37 2.47 2.91 2.68 1.87 2.31 2.08 1.46 0.13 0.38 B:C ratio

Organics M1 2932 M2 2750 M3 2310 SEm+ 24.61 CD(p=0.05) 96 Micronutrient management S1 2504 S2 2673 S3 2915 S4 2543 S5 2704 S6 2946 S7 2306 SEm+ 41.70 CD(p=0.05) 120

5779 5539 5203 22.9

1.90 1.87 1.82 0.007 0.03 1.75 1.88 1.91 1.82 1.91 2.05 1.70 0.012 0.04

5392 5522 5749 5408 5548 5774 5157 39.01 112

REFERENCES Aruna, P. 2009. Integrated nitrogen management in aerobic rice. M.Sc.(Ag) Thesis. Acharya N.G.Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad, India. Belder, P., Bouman, B.A.M., Spiertz, J.H., Peng, S., Castaneda, A.R. and Visperas, R.M. 2005. Crop performance, nitrogen and water use in flooded and aerobic rice. Plant and Soil. 273: 167-182. Ramana, A.V., Sreenivasulu Reddy, D. and Ramakumar Reddy, K. 2006. Influence of mulching and micro nutreint management practices on upland rice. Karnataka Journal of Agricultural Sciences. 17(4): 785-788.