On farm assessment of short duration rice variety Sahabhagidhan
Abstract
The study was carried out through on farm testing during kharif seasons of 2012 and 2013 under mid central table land zone of Odisha with an objective to evaluate the performances of short duration paddy Sahabhagi dhan as compared to the farmer’s practice (Khandagiri). The late matured (98.3 days) Sahabhagi dhan recorded higher germination(48.4 m-2), plant height(87.5 cm), effective tillers plant-1(13.2), Length of panicle(22.6 cm), filled grains panicle-1(125.3) with spikelet fertility(93.65 %) and 1000 grain weight(22.3 g) than khandagiri. The same also produced grain yield 35.5 q ha-1 which is 28.6 % higher yield than Khandagiri with harvest index ( 47.9) and water productivity(3.17 kg mm-1). The variety gave higher gross return Rs. 50365 ha-1 with a benefit- cost ratio 1.38 and additional net return Rs.6059 ha-1 as compared to farmers practice and thus the existing variety Khandagiri can be replaced by Sahabhagi dhan for higher productivity and income.
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Introduction
Rice is the predominant crop of Odisha with a total coverage of 4.0 million hectare which is about 65 % of the total cultivable area of the state. Area under rice crop in Angul district of the state is 0.08 million hectare with a productivity of 9.89 q ha-1 which is 48 % less than that of state(Anonymus 2012). Achieving self-sufficiency in rice production and maintaining price stability are important political objectives in low-income countries because of the importance of this crop in providing national food security and generating employment and income for low-income people (Ghosh et al., 2009).
Developing drought tolerant rice cultivars is considered to be one of the most effective and economic approaches to ensuring food security(Verma and Srivastava, 2004). A large portion about 70 % of area under rice in India is drought prone rainfed, but it has not been exploited to full potential due to lack of suitable drought tolerant or resistant varieties ( Kumar et al., 2012).There is hardly any scope to replace the rice crop considering the precipitation of less than 1500 mm rainfall during the monsoon season. However, multiple cropping system using short duration rice varieties and intensive input management may enhance the land use efficiency and increase the production level if sowing of rabi crops are made in time(Khanda et al., 2005). It is called Sahbhagi Dhan, which means “rice developed through collaboration” in Hindi (Reyes 2009). This name was given to it because the variety was tested under a collaborative project between IRRI and many Indian organizations. Sahabhagi Dhan has shown a yield advantage of 0.8 to 1ton ha-1over other varieties under drought conditions (Yamano et al., 2013).
Hence, there remains a scope to introduce a short duration high yielding rice variety in existing rice-based cropping system in mid central table land zone of Odisha. If the farmers are able to harvest their kharif rice 25-30 days earlier than usual harvesting time then they could able to sow their next crop in time during rabi. The new improved technologies will eventually lead to the farmers to discontinue the old varieties and to adopt new variety. Similar results were reported by Sharma et al.(2011) .
Keeping in view such problems and after detailed survey the KVK, Angul made an attempt with an objective to evaluate growth and yield parameters of newly released promising high yielding variety paddy cv. Sahabhagidhan through on farm testing for its suitability in the existing farming situation for substitution of old variety( Khandagiri) with higher productivity and income.
Conclusion
Thus, the cultivation of paddy Sahabhagi dhan was found to be more productive and can replace the local check since it fits to the existing farming situation for higher productivity and income and also it had been appreciated by the farmers due to its drought tolerance and higher tillering capacity.
