Author(s):

Ardith Sankar, Avijit Sen, Ram Kumar Singh, P Raha, Y Singh, JK Singh and VK Srivastava

Abstract: Variability of monsoon is a major constraint for crop production. Uncertain and uneven precipitation under rainfed conditions affects the physiology of the crop resulting in poor productivity. Problems aggravate if dry conditions persist for a longer period. Increasing the productivity of water used in agriculture thus becomes essential to meet goals of food and nutritional security. Water and nutrient availability is of utmost importance which contributes to the growth and productivity of rice where nutrient uptake is often hindered due to the limitation of moisture. In view of the above, an experiment was conducted in the kharif seasons of 2016 and 2017 in the Agricultural Research Farm, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University to find the effect of D-18 compost, farm yard manure, Trichoderma and hydrogel in different combinations on the performance of the crop. Two varieties viz., DRR 42 and IR 64- the isolines were chosen to conduct the comparative study of their performance under different treatment combinations. It was a factorial experiment with 14 treatment combinations laid out in a randomized complete block design with four replications. The results revealed that D-18 compost and Trichoderma were superior to other treatments with respect to grain yield, straw yield, panicles m^-2, filled spikelets panicle^-1. DRR 42, a drought tolerant variety, produced more grain yield (3.26 t ha^-1) and remained significantly superior to IR 64 (3.05 t ha^-1). DRR 42 registered higher input-output ratio (2.00) and was significantly superior to IR 64 (1.87). Among the soil/seed treatments, D-18 compost + Trichoderma sp. registered the highest yield although remained statistically at par with all other treatments except control. D-18 compost+ Trichoderma sp. also showed maximum input-output ratio. It was therefore clear that use of D-18 compost+ Trichoderma sp. could improve the productivity of DRR 42 by increasing its stress tolerance capacity under rainfed condition.

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