Development of production management strategies for a long-duration rice variety: Rajendra Mahsuri—using crop growth model, DSSAT, for the state of Bihar, India

Abstract

Increasing crop production is an inevitable demand of a current growing population all over the world. Implementation of best field crop practices potentially enables farmers to achieve that desired increase in crop production. The CERES-Rice model in Decision Support System for Agrotechnology Transfer was used in this study with 10 years (2006–2015) of field experimental data collected from the CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center)–BISA (Borlaug Institute for South Asia), Pusa, Bihar, research farm to provide the water stress impact on crop production, and best management strategies to improve the rice yield, followed by the calibration (2006–2010) and validation (2011–2015) from the collected field experimental data. The genetic coefficients were developed for the rice variety, Rajendra Mahsuri. The normalized root-mean-square error (RMSEn) and d-index values were obtained to be 2.73% and 0.62, respectively, for prediction of yield with the model performance efficiency (ME) of 75% in the range of 5 years of validation studies. The model indicated that water stress during vegetative and maturity phase decreased rice yield by 24% and 33%, respectively. However, the water stress during reproductive stage showed the largest reduction in the yield by 43%, and hence, must be avoided. Several management strategies were investigated to determine their impact on rice yield. Optimum transplanting date was found to be during the month of June for the highest yield of Rajendra Mahsuri rice. Application of crop residue up to 2500 kg/ha would increase the yield by 21.94%, compared to the management practices where no residue is applied in the field. Crop row spacing of 15–25 cm increased rice yield by 16.47–18.49%, and for maximum yield, optimum planting depth was found to be 2–4 cm. Additionally, keeping a ponding depth of 4–6 cm before 10 days of harvesting would aid in maximizing the rice yield by 10.70–16.10%, compared to no ponding or more than 6 cm of ponding conditions in the field.