Comparison of Rice Cultivars (Oryza sativa. L.) under SRI and Normal Transplanting Method for Resource Conservation and Productivity Enhancement in Irrigated System

An experiment was conducted at the Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR) farm, ICRISAT for three consecutive kharif and rabi seasons from 2016 to 2018 to evaluate varieties under System of Rice Intensification (SRI) and Normal Transplanting (NTP) method. A total of 46 cultivars including hybrids (10), High yielding varieties (HYVs) (28) and elite cultures (8) were tested. Data pooled over years and seasons indicated that SRI was significantly superior in terms of number of tillers, number of panicles per square meter, days for 50% flowering and grain yield with low inputs viz; energy, man power and irrigation. Hybrids, HYVs and elite culture recorded a grain yield of 6.54 t/ha, 5.65 t/ha and 5.50 t/ha under SRI as compared to 5.13, 4.59 and 4.58 t/ha, respectively under NTP, thereby indicating that SRI excelled NTP in grain yield. Pooled data of six seasons, three years among the cultivars indicated that SRI recorded higher grain yield (5.90 t/ha) over NTP (4.77 t/ha) with mean percent grain yield increase of 23.4%. Intensification method was also promising over conventional transplanting in terms of energy use efficiency (SRI 10.17% over NTP 6.20%) and economy parameters (B:C ratio 2.0 in SRI and 1.20 in NTP). Water productivity was higher in SRI (7.08 kg/mm/ha) than NTP (3.93 kg/mm/ha).