Effect of Planting Density on the Performance of Hybrid Rice (Oryza sativa L.) under Waterlogged Condition

The experiment was conducted to find out the effect of planting density on the performance of hybrid rice variety Aloran under water logged condition at the BRAC Agricultural Research and Development Center in Gazipur, Bangladesh during the dry (DS) and wet season (WS) of 2009. Different planting densities were maintained using different spacings and number of seedlings per hill. These include 25 cm × 20 cm, 25 cm × 10 cm, 20 cm × 10 cm, 20 cm × 15 cm with single seedling per hill and 20 cm × 15 cm with two seedlings per hill and 20 cm × 15 cm with three seedlings per hill. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with 3 replications. Density of 20 cm × 10 cm with 1 seedling hill-1 i.e. 50 hills m-2 produced the highest grain yield of 7.5 t ha-1 and 4.6 t ha-1 in DS and WS respectively, which was significantly higher than the yield with recommended density (20 cm × 15 cm with 1 seedling per hill). This yield was increased due to higher number of panicles m-2. Increasing the seedling numbers hill-1 with the recommended planting density did not improve the yield of hybrid rice. This result suggests that higher planting density rather than increased number of seedling hill-1 is necessary for getting higher yield of hybrid rice in continuous water logged condition. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/agric.v11i2.17497 The Agriculturists 2013; 11(2) 109-113