Abstract

Rice-rice system and rice fallows are no longer productive in Southeast Asia. Crop and varietal diversification of the rice based cropping systems may improve the productivity and profitability of the systems. Diversification is also a viable option to mitigate the risk of climate change. In Eastern India, farmers cultivate rice during rainy season (June–September) and land leftovers fallow after rice harvest in the post-rainy season (November–May) due to lack of sufficient rainfall or irrigation amenities. However, in lowland areas, sufficient residual soil moistures are available in rice fallow in the post-rainy season (November–March), which can be utilized for raising second crops in the region. Implementation of suitable crop/varietal diversification is thus very much vital to achieve this objective. To assess the yield performance of rice varieties under timely and late sown conditions and to evaluate the performance of dry season crops following them, three different duration rice cultivars were transplanted in July and August. In dry season several non-rice crops were sown in rice fallow to constitute a cropping system. The results revealed that tiller occurrence, biomass accumulation, dry matter remobilization, crop growth rate, and ultimately yield were significantly decreased under late transplanting. On an average, around 30% yield reduction obtained under late sowing may be due to low temperature stress and high rainfall at reproductive stages of the crop. Dry season crops following short duration rice cultivars performed better in terms of grain yield. In the dry season, toria was profitable when sown earlier and if sowing was delayed greengram was suitable. Highest system productivity and profitability under timely sown rice may be due to higher dry matter remobilization from source to sink. A significant correlation was observed between biomass production and grain yield. We infer that late transplanting decrease the tiller occurrence and assimilate remobilization efficiency, which may be responsible for the reduced grain yield.

Highlights

  • Rice production in the tropics is sensitive to climatic factors such as temperature, rainfall, and solar radiation which affect the crop in various ways during different stages of its growth [1]

  • It can be concluded that transplanting time significantly affected crop growth, remobilization of photosynthates and yield of rice and following dry season crops mainly due to prevailing weather conditions

  • Transplanting during July month is most suitable for obtaining better yields of all the rice cultivars, but if transplanting is to be done late, short duration cultivars like Naveen must be chosen for better productivity and profitability

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Summary

Introduction

Rice production in the tropics is sensitive to climatic factors such as temperature, rainfall, and solar radiation which affect the crop in various ways during different stages of its growth [1]. Many studies confirm that significant changes have occurred in the climate of South East Asia during the 20th Century [2,3] and that in some regions in the tropics, weather is already approaching critical levels during the susceptible stages of rice growth [4]. Weather and climate affect plant growth and development, and the fluctuations and occurrences of climatic extremes at critical crop growth stages may reduce yield significantly [5]. This makes climate variability a threat to food production leading to serious social and economic implications [6]. Weather and climate variability influence the initiation of the rice cropping season since it is often synchronized with the onset of the rainy season

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