Abstract:
Traditional rice cultivars in Sri Lanka conserve different abiotic
and biotic tolerant traits but the yield of traditional rice cultivars is not as
much of improved cultivars. Abiotic stress tolerance of some traditional rice
cultivars were evaluated in previous studies at Faculty of Agriculture,
Mapalana, Sri Lanka and this study attempted to understand the possibility
of enhancing the yield and yield components of traditional rice cultivars by
altering the fertilizer dose. A field experiment was carried out from October
2011 to April 2012 at the Faculty of Agriculture. There is a fertilizer
recommendation suggested by the Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka for
modern rice cultivars. Traditional rice cultivars are considered to be weaker
in response to fertilizer. Four different fertilizer levels namely No fertilizer,
half the recommended dose, recommended dose and twice the
recommended dose were evaluated with forty Sri Lankan traditional rice
cultivars to understand the response of them on different agronomic
parameters. Germinated seeds were planted in rows with 15cm20cm
spacing. Twenty plants were managed for each line and three lines were
maintained for one replicate of cultivar. Experiment was conducted with
four replicates. Effect of fertilizer on the plant height, number of tillers/plant
and number of leaves/plant were measured at three weeks after
transplanting. These parameters were significantly differed with the
fertilizer doses. The highest number of tillers and highest number of leaves
were observed under the half the recommended dose. Plant height was
significantly increased under the recommended dose while the lowest plant
height was recorded under twice the recommended dose. Correlation of
these parameters and other yield components with the final yield is yet to be computed.