Effect of variety and date of harvesting on yield performance of boro rice

Abstract

The yield of rice in Bangladesh is much below compared to that of other rice growing countries. The per hectare yield of rice of those countries is higher due to their adoption of improved varieties, modern farming technology and sophisticated cultural practices. Therefore, Bangladesh has a tremendous scope of increasing her total production by augmenting per hectare yield through the use of modern technology. Hence, from the practical point of view, greater attention should be paid for increasing the yield per unit area by growing modern varieties of rice through improved cultivation practices. An experiment was conducted for investigating the effect of variety and date of harvesting on yield performance of modern boro rice varieties at the Agronomy Field Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during February to July 2015. The experiment comprised four rice varieties namely, BRRI dhan28, Hera hybrid2, Binadhan-14 and BRRI dhan58 and three time of harvesting viz., 20, 27 and 34 days after flowering. The experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with three replications. Except plant height, all other characters were significantly influenced by different date of harvesting in all varieties. BRRI dhan58 was found significantly superior to Binadhan-14, BRRI dhan28 and Hera hybrid2 in respect of effective tillers, grains panicle^-1, grain yield, biological yield and harvest index. Among three harvesting times, the highest grain yield (4.39 t ha^-1) and straw yield (5.50 t ha^-1) were obtained when the crop was harvested at 27 days after flowering. The interaction effect of variety and date of harvesting was significant in respect of grain and straw yield. The highest grain yield (5.07 t ha^-1) was observed in BRRI dhan58 when harvested at 27 days after flowering. Therefore, optimum date of harvesting for higher grain yield may be 27 days after flowering for avoiding immature stage as well as shattering loss.