Effect of arbuscular mycorrhiza on growth and yield of lowland rice ecosystem

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted with rice CO(R) 51 at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. There were ten treatment combinations replicated thrice in Randomized Block Design. The treatments comprised of recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) NPK (150:50:50) kg/ha, ZnSO4 @ 25 kg/ha as soil application as well as foliar spray @ 0.5%, 30 per cent of previous crop residue was incorporated as paddy straw @ 3.8 t/ha, Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (AM) @ 50 kg/ha. The maximum plant height (99.7 cm), dry matter production (12,478 kg/ha), grain yield (6,677 kg/ha) and B:C ratio (2.81) were recorded significantly higher in RDF + AM + residue incorporation + ZnSO4 foliar spray over farmers practices of RDF alone and was nearly followed by application of RDF + AM + residue incorporation + ZnSO4 soil application.