Long term effects of rice establishment methods on physical properties and rice productivity in vertisols of Chhattisgarh plain

Abstract

The farmer field study was carried out during 2016 at village Saida, Takhatpur Tehsil in Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh to evaluate the “Long term effects of rice establishment methods on physical properties and rice productivity in Vertisols of Chhattisgarh plain”. The trial was laid out in Randomized block design with twelve replications and three treatments in rice based cropping system in Vertisols. The study on the long-term effect of rice establishment methods on soil physical, chemical, biological properties and crop productivity were evaluated after harvest of rice crop. In this study, three rice establishment methods i.e. transplanting, broadcast-biasi and direct seeded line sowing were laid in main treatment. A study was undertaken to characterize the soil resources of the investigation field. The residual effect of rice establishment methods on soil physical properties like bulk density, hydraulic conductivity, penetration resistance, water holding capacity and crack volume were significantly affected by the treatments. Transplanting method significantly increased the bulk density of surface soil (0-15 cm) and sub-surface layer i.e. (15-30 and 30-45 cm) but non-significant affect was obtained at lower (45-60 cm) depth. The hydraulic conductivity was found maximum in surface layer under direct seeded method and increases as per depth was decreased. Penetration resistance was recorded significantly increase with increase in depth. Water holding capacity was significantly increased with direct seeded (LS) method and minimum was recorded in transplanting method. Crack volume was significantly higher in transplanting method over other methods of rice cultivation.