Effect of systems of rice cultivation, cultivars and nutrient management options on yield, nutrient uptake and economics of rice*

A field experiment was conducted at the Directorate of Rice Research Farm, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad during the kharif 2006. The experiment was laid out in a split-split plot design replicated thrice with two methods of cultivation (SRI and NTP), two cultivars (PSD-1 and BPT-5204 ) and six nutrient management options (5 t FYM/ha, 10 t FYM/ha, 50% RDF, 100% RDF, 5 t FYM/ha+50% RDF and 10 t FYM/ha+50% RDF). The results revealed that the grain yield and the total nutrient uptake by the crop did not differ between methods of cultivation. However, the straw yield was significantly higher under NTP method compared to SRI.The hybrid PSD-1 performed better resulting in significantly higher grain and straw yields as well as nutrient uptake over BPT-5204. Among the different nutrient management options, integrated use of 10 t FYM/ha alongwith 50% RDF gave significantly higher grain (5595 kg/ha) and straw yield (6700 kg/ha) as well as nutrient uptake (121.41, 31.76 and 110.56 N, P and K kg/ha, respectively) followed by 5 t FYM/ha+50% RDF and 100% RDF alone treatments. In terms of economics, the cultivar BPT-5204 under SRI with integrated treatments (10 t/5 t FYM/ha+50% RDF) gave, respectively, higher gross (Rs. 49,254 and 46,500/ha) and net returns (Rs. 34,581 and 33,627/ha) but the benefit : cost ratio (2.61) was higher with 5 t FYM/ha+50% RDF treatment because of higher cost incurred on FYM with 10 t FYM/ha+50% RDF treatment (B : C ratio of 2.35).