GROWTH ANALYSIS AND YIELD OF RICE AS AFFECTED BY DIFFERENT SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION (SRI) PRACTICES

A field investigation was conducted to determine the influence of various System of Rice Intensification (SRI) components on growth analysis and yield of rice variety ADT 43 in Karaikal during kharif season. Twelve treatment combinations (YOSC, NOSC, YMSC, YOSH, NMSC, NOSH, YMSH, YORH, NMSH, YMRH, NORH and NMRH) were replicated thrice in a Randomised block design in which Y refers to young seedlings of 14 days old raised in a modified rice mat nursery; N refers to normal seedlings of 21 days old raised in a conventional nursery; O refers to one seedling hill-1; M refers to multiple seedlings (3 seedlings hill-1); S refers to square planting (22.5 cm x 22.5 cm); R refers to rectangular planting (12.5 cm x 10.0 cm); C refers to conoweeding in both directions with conoweeder and H refers to hand weeding.. The results of the investigation showed that the combination of young seedling (14 days old), one seedling hill-1, square planting with wider spacing (22.5cm x 22.5cm) and conoweeding four times at weekly interval starting from 15 DAT (YOSC) enhanced the growth parameters which in turn improved the grain yield by 68.25 per cent over the traditional practice.