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

Hafeez Ur Rehman*, Muhammad Kamran, Shahzad Maqsood Ahmed Basra, Irfan Afzal, Muhammad Farooq

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)189-196
Number of pages8
JournalRice Science
Volume22
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jul 1 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Alternating wetting and drying
  • Crop establishment
  • Direct seeded rice
  • Grain filling rate
  • Grain quality
  • Seed priming
  • Water productivity
  • Yield

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Biotechnology
  • Agronomy and Crop Science
  • Plant Science

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