Growth and Yield of Basmati and Traditional Aromatic Rice As Influenced By Water Stress and Nitrogen Level

Abstract

The experiment was done at the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute Farm, Gazipur during Boro season to determine the critical growth stage where water stress affect on yield reduction and to find out optimum level of nitrogen and to select stress tolerance nitrogen responsive rice variety. Water stress was imposed at i) vegetative stage, ii) reproductive stage, iii) grain filling stages and compared with iv) control (no water stress). Forty day-old seedlings of rice variety; BasmatiPNR, Basmati-D and Kalijira were transplanted on 15 December. Plant spacing was maintained at 20cm x15cm. Nitrogen was top dressed at 0, 70, 105 and 140 kg ha-1 at different growth stages. Increased spikelet sterility, resulting low grain yield. The highest grain yield was observed in stress free crop irrespective of nitrogen levels. However, grain yield increased with the increase of nitrogen levels irrespective of water stress. In the high fertilized crop, percentage of spikelet sterility increased with the increase water stress especially at the reproductive stage. Among the tested varieties the short stature Basmati PNR performed well by reducing spikelet sterility irrespective of nitrogen level and water stress conditions. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jsf.v10i2.17958 J Sci Found, 2012;10(2):52-62