Assessment of Yield and Yield Attributing Characters of Drought Tolerant Rice Cultivars under Different Crop Management Practices in Central Terai of Nepal

Proper selections of resource conservation technologies and drought tolerant cultivars are being potential strategies determining yield of rice in drought prone areas. Thus, a field experiment was accomplished in central-terai of Nepal during 2014 to assess the yield and yield attributing characters of drought tolerant rice cultivars under different crop management practices. The experiment was carried out in strip-plot design with three replications consisting four drought tolerant rice cultivars and three crop management practices. The analyzed data revealed that SRI (System of Rice Intensification) produced significantly higher grain yield (5.28 t ha-1) than other management practices. The yield attributing characters viz. effective tillers per m-2, filled grains per panicle, panicle length and panicle weight were also significantly higher in SRI. However, cultivars had no influence on grain yield and yield attributing characters except panicle length and panicle weight. Thus, SRI management practice can be adopted as adaptation approach for obtaining higher grain yield in central terai and similar agro-climatic regions of Nepal.