Varietal evaluation of spring rice (Oryza sativa L.) genotypes in Kanchanpur, Nepal

A field experiment was carried out on spring rice in the rabi season of 2022 from February 3 to July 4 with an aim to identify the most suitable spring rice cultivar in Kanchanpur, Nepal. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications and eight treatments. The treatments were eight spring rice genotypes: one released (Chaite-5), one local genotype (ChaineeAndi), and six pipeline varieties (IR17A2946, IR17A2796, IR17A2949, IR13F402, IR16A3838, and IR18A2066). A total of 24 experimental plots, each of 6m2 (3*2m), were set to the experimental design. The treatments were randomly assigned to the replications. Data were collected for various morphological characters such as plant height (cm), number of tillers (/plant), effective tillers (/m2), panicle length (cm), number of grains per panicle, sterility (%), thousand-grain weight (gm), grain yield (kg), straw yield (kg), biological yield (kg), and harvest index. Results revealed significance for all parameters except for the effective number of tillers per plant. ChaineeAndi took the least days to mature and had the highest effective tiller number per plant. Genotype IR17A2066 took the most days to flower and mature, and had greater plant height, thousand-grain weight, but low grain yield. Grains per panicle were higher in IR13F402 but lowest panicle length. Chaite-5 had the highest sterility percentage. Highest grain yield, straw yield, and harvest index was observed in genotypes IR16A3838, IR17A2946, Chaite-5, and IR17A2949. IR16A3838 performed superior than other genotypes in environmental conditions of Kanchanpur, Nepal.