Abstract
Rice is among the most important commercial cereal crops that can be produced in North Gondar. However, its production is challenged by low yield mainly due to lack of appropriate agronomic practices and recommendations. Uses of appropriate seed rate and row spacing most importantly affect the productivity of rice. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of seed rate and row spacing on grain yield and yield components of upland rice. Factorial combinations of four seed rates (60, 80,100 and 120 kg ha-1) and three levels of row spacing (20, 25 and 30 cm) were laid out in RCBD with three replications using NERICA- 4 rice variety. The combine interaction effect of seed rate and row spacing was highly significant (P<0.01) on days to heading, days to maturity, number of total tiller per meter row length, thousand seed weight and grain yield, and significant (P<0.05) on plant height. The highest thousand seed weight (27.3 g) was recorded at seeding rate (80 kg ha-1and grow spacing of 30 cm but the lowest (17.1 g) was recorded on seed rate of 120 kg ha-1and row spacing of 25 cm. The highest grain yield (4148.8 kg ha-1) was obtained at interaction of 80 kg ha-1seed rate and 20cm row spacing. While the lowest grains yield (1826.4 kg ha-1) was obtained from the combination of 60 kg ha-1seed rate and 30cm row spacing. In conclusion, the results revealed that seed rate and row spacing increased grain yield of rice by positively affecting the important yield components of the rice. The result of economic analysis showed that the maximum net benefit was obtained at seed rate of 80 kg ha-1 and row spacing of 20 cm. Hence use of 80 kg ha-1 and 20 cm is promising for upland rice variety production under the rain fed condition at Metema district and similar agro ecologies.
Highlights
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) ranks second after wheat in the world cereals grain production
Days to Emergence The combine analysis show that days to 50% crop emergence were not significantly affected by seed rate, row spacing and by their interaction (Table A1)
Plant Height The results revealed that the height of the rice plant was highly significantly (P
Summary
Rice (Oryza sativa L.) ranks second after wheat in the world cereals grain production. Rice is the World’s most important crop and it is a staple food for more than half of the world population [32] It is the world’s leading food crop, cultivated over an area of about 161.53 million ha with a production of about 481.14 million metric tons [16]. This represents 29% of the total output of grain crops worldwide [16]. Most of the increase in production has come from expansion in the area harvested rather than from increases in yields [48]. It provides about 22% of the world’s supply of calories and 17% of the proteins [53]
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