Influence of FYM, Brown Manuring and Nitrogen Levels on Direct Seeded and Transplanted Rice (Oryza sativa L.): A Review

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is the principal source of food for more than half of the world population, especially in South and Southeast Asia and Latin America. It is the main staple food crop of India, covering an area of about 39.16 m ha with total production of 85.59 mg of rice during 2012–2013 (Anonymous, 2014). Rice is cultivated mainly through transplanting in puddled field, which results in formation of a hard pan and damages soil structure, though it helps in retention of more water and effective in weed control, but this needs more time, labour, energy. Puddling delays planting of succeeding wheat crop and reduces wheat root growth and this limits water uptake and consequently lower the crop yield. Moreover, this technique requires continuous ponding of water for establishment of the seedlings in general and for full effectiveness of applied herbicides, in particular. This in turn leads to nutrient losses through leaching besides causing high evapotranspiration (ET) losses during the hot summer months. In addition, it has been realized that at cultivar’s fields plant population varies from 16–21 hills m -2 as against the recommended 33 hills/m2, which acts as a yield limiting factor. Presently, the farmers transplant paddy in the first week of June when the daily evaporation rate is very International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 8 (2017) pp. 1794-1807 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com