Growth Performance and Yield of Coloured Rice at Different Fertilizer Rates (24 pages)

• Main Author: ZARIFAH, MASNI
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) 2021
• Subjects: S Agriculture (General)
• Online Access: http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/35834/1/Growth%20Performance%20and%20Yield%20of%20Coloured%20Rice%20at%20Different%20Fertilizer%20Rates%20ZARIFAH%20BINTI%20MASNI%202021%20%2824%20pgs%29.pdf; http://ir.unimas.my/id/eprint/35834/
• Institution: Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

A pot experiment was carried out to determine the effect of different levels of Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K) on growth, yield and Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE) of coloured rice variety (MRM16). Pots were arranged according to Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with five replicates (R) for each treatment (T). The soil used for this research was the Bijat soil series, which distinguishes its clay particle size class by more than 35% clay particle size. The experiment was conducted at MARDI Kuching Research Nursery during the main rice cultivation season of 2016 (from December 2016 to April 2017). The experimental design consisted of four (4) treatments according to the levels of nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), and potassium (K) fertilizers added to the MRM16 cultivation. Growth parameter measurements, namely crop growth performance and yield component performance, were assessed. Besides, Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE) of cultivated rice was also evaluated. Growth performance data (plant height, number of tillers, and leaf N content) for a plant in each pot was recorded at 15, 45, 75, 105 days after transplant (DAT) and maturation. Panicles from each plant in pots were collected at maturity (115 DAT). Yield component data (total spikelet number per panicle, 1000 grain weight, the number of panicle and percentage of filled- grain) from all treatments were determined after all yield was harvested. In this study, there were significant differences in MRM16 rice growth parameters when more N, P, and K fertilizers were added during cultivation. T3 (120 kg N/ha, 70 kg P/ha and 80 kg K/ha) and T4 (180 kg N/ha, 105 kg P/ha, and 120 kg K/ha) recorded the highest plant height among all treatments. The increase in N fertilizer application for T2, T3, and T4 resulted in higher Leaf N content. The result showed that the leaf Nitrogen (N) content for all treatments peaked at 45 DAT before gradually decreased at 115 DAT. All growth parameters rapidly increased during the plant vegetative stage before the growth performance reached its optimum growth at the maturity stage. The results showed that yield was not significantly affected by the increment of NPK fertilizer added at a rate of more than 60 kg/ha N, 35kg/ha P and 40 kg/ha K (T2). In this study, the yield of coloured rice was affected by both the number of panicles/m2 and the percentage of filled spikelets. Nutrient use efficiency (NUE) such as PFP (Partial Factor Productivity), AE (Agronomic Efficiency), RE (Apparent Recovery Efficiency), PE (Physiological Efficiency), and IE (Internal Efficiency) can improve to achieve desirable yield potential while also preventing N, P, and K fertilizer loss to the environment. Treatment 2 was found to have higher NUE values. Higher NUEs were obtained at lower N, P, and K levels in this study. The observations made in this pot study gave the preliminary data. The initial information, it can be concluded that the coloured rice MRM16 variety, was suitable to be cultivated in the Bijat soil series and using fertilizer rates of T2 (N60 P35 K40). It showed no significantly different from T3 (recommended treatments) in terms of yield. However, it is recommended that further on a field trial of MRM16 variety to be carried out before large scale planting in Sarawak and before being introduced to local farmers.