evaluation of long duration Rice varieties for enhancing Productivity and Profitability under island ecosystem

Abstract

The field experiments were conducted at the field crop research farm, Bloomsdale of Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair during wet seasons of 2006 - 09. Four high yielding long duration rice varieties viz., Ranjit (155-160 days), Savitri (150 days) Varshadhan (160 days) and Gayatri (160 days) obtained from Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack along with traditional photosensitive lodging prone long duration variety C14-8 (170 days) and medium duration variety Taichung sen Yu (120 days) were evaluated at research farm and farmer’s fields. Among the rice varieties, Varshadhan recorded higher plant height (177 cm) and dry matter production (10.33 t ha-1) followed by Ranjit and Savithri both at research farm and farmer’s field. However, Ranjit recorded significantly higher ear bearing tillers (15 hill-1) and filled grains (750 grains) followed by Savithri and Varshadhan in both the locations. The local check, Taichung sen Yu and C 14-8 recorded significantly lower growth and yield attributes as compared to improved long duration rice varieties. Ranjit registered highest grain yield (3 975 kg ha-1) followed by Savithri (3 114 kg ha-1) and Varshadhan (3 096 kg ha-1) at research farm where as Ranjit recorded higher yield of 2 829 kg ha-1 followed by Varshadhan (2 773 kg ha-1), Savitri (2 382 kg ha-1) and Gayatri (2 427 kg ha-1) at farmer’s fields. Traditional variety C 14 - 8 recorded lower yield both at research farm and farmer’s field. Ranjit recorded higher net return (Rs.23 341 ha-1) and B: C ratio (2.57) followed by Varshadhan and Savithri in research farm. However, at farmer’s fields, both Ranjit and Varshadhan performed well and recorded higher net return and B: C ratio. Similar to the economics, Ranjit registered higher energy productivity and lower specific energ