Influence of Seed Priming on Performance and Water Productivity of Direct Seeded Rice in Alternating Wetting and Drying

Direct seeded rice is promising alternative to traditional transplanting, but requires appropriate crop and water management to maintain yield performance and achieve high water productivity. Present study evaluated the effect of seed priming and irrigation on crop establishment, tillering, agronomic traits, paddy yield, grain quality and water productivity of direct seeded rice in alternate wetting and drying (DSR-AWD) in comparison with direct seeded rice at field capacity (DSR-FC). Seed priming treatments were osmo-priming with KCl (2.2%), CaCl₂ (2.2%) and moringa leaf extracts (MLE, 3.3%) including hydro-priming as control. Among the treatments, seed osmo-primed with MLE emerged earlier and had higher final emergence, followed by osmo-priming with CaCl₂. Tillering emergence rate and number of tillers per plant were the highest for seed priming with CaCl₂ in DSR-AWD. Total productive and non-productive tillers, panicle length, biological and grain yields, harvest index were highest for seed priming with MLE or CaCl₂ in DSR-AWD. Similarly, grain quality, estimated in terms of normal grains, abortive and chalky grains, was also the highest in DSR-AWD with MLE osmo-priming. Benefit cost ratio and water productivity was also the highest in DSR-AWD for seed priming with MLE. In conclusion, seed priming with MLE or CaCl₂ can be successfully employed to improve the direct seeded rice performance when practiced with alternate wetting and drying irrigation.