Evaluation of Yield and Yield Components of Lowland Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Varieties in the Rainfed-Lowland Rice Producing Areas of Ethiopia

Abebaw Dessie

doi:10.7176/jnsr/9-24-02

Abstract

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of rice varieties for grain yield and other agronomic traits in the rainfed lowland rice producing areas of Ethiopia; Assosa, Bako, Pawe and Tepi during 2017 and 2018 cropping season. Six lowland rice varieties were included for evaluation and laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design with four replications.The combined analysis across years and locations revealed significant variations ( p≤ 0.001) among the tested varieties for days to heading, days to maturity, plant height, grain yield and thousand seed weight while non-significant difference was observed for number of filled grains per panicle and panicle length. Both location and year effects were highly significant for all measured traits. Variety by location and variety by year were highly significant ( p≤ 0.001) for days to heading, days to maturity, plant height, number of filled grains per panicle, and grain yield though variety by year was not significant for thousand seed weight. Variety by location and variety by year were non-significant for panicle length.Based on the performance of the variety in each test location and year, variety Ediget is recommended for Assosa (2.93 tha -1 ) and Bako (3.39 tha -1 )) areas with days to heading and maturity (85 and 145 days) among the tested varieties, and variety Fogera-2 (5.19 tha -1 ) for Pawe areas with maturity date (121 days) while, in Tepi area variety Hibir followed by Gumara are recommended for better productivity (4.83 tha -1 and 4.68 tha -1 ) respectively. However, based on average grain yield over four locations and two years variety Ediget (3.22 tha -1 ) followed by Fogera-2 (3.07 tha -1 ) performed better than others and they are recommended for production. Keywords : Lowland rice, Adaptation, Variety, Yield DOI : 10.7176/JNSR/9-24-02 Publication date: December 31 st 2019

Highlights

Rice production is a recent phenomenon in Ethiopia, as compared to other cereals crops
The results revealed that Ediget (2933 kg ha-1) and Demoze (2933 kg ha-1) are the high yielder and well adapted varieties in the rainfed lowland rice producing areas of Assosa
Significant variation (p≤0.001) was observed among the tested varieties for days to heading, days to www.iiste.org maturity, panicle length, plant height, grain yield and thousand seed weight while non-significant difference was observed for number of filled grains per panicle (Table 7)

Summary

Introduction

Rice production is a recent phenomenon in Ethiopia, as compared to other cereals crops. It had been introduced by in 1960s at Fogera and Gambela areas through North Korean and Dutch people respectively (CSA, 2011; Gebey et al, 2012). Even though there is an increment in the production, the imports are increasing from year to year. From 2008 to 2016 the imported rice had increased from 225,000 quintal to 3,118,270 quintal and causes more than 170 US dollars. This indicates the increasing demand of rice from year to year in the country. Rice is food securing crop and a source of employment and income source for youths in most rice producing areas of the country (Dawit et al, 2018)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion