Unravelling the Growth Potential of Rice under Modified Rice Cultivation System in Tamil Nadu, India

There is a need for increasing rice productivity to cope up with increasing population and water shortages, especially in Tamil Nadu, India. Efforts were made in the past, mainly to increase the genetic potential of the crop, by developing high yielding varieties. However, adoption of improved agronomic practices and production technologies could further increase the productivity besides saving water. System of Rice Intensification (SRI) comprises the various altered agronomic practices and is proved to be an effective cultivation method by enhancing the rice growth and productivity. It is important to understand influence of individual practices and their combinations on rice growth and productivity for deriving the maximum growth and yield advantages of SRI features. A field experiment was conducted at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu to study the growth responses of rice to different practices of SRI viz., 14 days old seedling with single seedling per hill, square planting pattern with wider spacing, Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) method of irrigation and, use of cono-weeders to control weeds. It was found that planting younger seedlings with single seedling per hill greatly increased dry matter assimilation in rice plants and the use of cono-weeders encouraged the tiller production in rice. The treatments with complete SRI practices produced 3 times higher number of tillers and panicles per hill and 38.9 percent more dry matter content than conventional practices. SRI practices could be adopted by the farmers to boost the growth attributes of rice and to achieve higher rice productivity in Tamil Nadu.