Yield and yield components of selected rice (Oryza sativa L.) Cultivars as affected by salinit

Abstract

Salinity is an important agricultural constrain which retards crop production. An experiment was conducted at the Agronomy farm of the Eastern University to find out the yield and yield attributes of selected rice cultivars which were exposed to salinity. The saline soil was collected from a saline tract of Batticaloa district. Three rice cultivars viz. “Pachaiperumal”, “At 307”and “At 308” were used as the test materials. The experiment was conducted using polyethylene bags and was laid out in the Factorial Completely Randomized Design with six treatments and four replications. Salt stress was imposed for the three weeks old rice seedlings after transplanting them in the polyethylene bags which were filled with saline soil. Non saline soil was used as the control treatment. With regard to the yield attributes, cultivar “At 307” showed the best results compared to the rest of the cultivars under saline condition. “At 307” maintained highest number of productive tillers (15.5) per plant, highest number of filled grains (146.5) per panicle, lowest number of unfilled grains (50.8), highest value of 1000-grain weight (18.4 g) and highest yield (2 t ha-1) than the rest of the cultivars. Rice cultivars “Pachaiperumal” and “At 308” showed their susceptibility to salinity stress. Thus, “At 307” was identified as the most salt tolerant rice cultivar compared to the others