Mulching Improves Crop Growth, Grain Length, Head Rice and Milling Recovery of Basmati Rice Grown in Water-saving Production Systems

作者：Jabran Khawar; Ullah Ehsan; Akbar Nadeem^*

来源：International Journal of Agriculture and Biology, 2015, 17(5): 920-928.

DOI：10.17957/ijab/15.0019

• Aerobic rice
• Alternate wetting and drying
• Growth
• Mulches
• Grain recovery

Water saving rice cultivation is indispensable in the wake of severe water shortage. Application of mulches can increase the water retention in water-saving rice; however, the effect of mulches on the growth and quality of rice are desired to be investigated. Hence, two years studies were conducted to evaluate the effect of plastic and straw mulch on crop growth, grain quality and recovery of fine rice. Water saving rice was grown under aerobic (AR) and alternate wetting and drying (AWD) conditions with application of plastic and straw mulch (5 t ha(-1)). Plots without mulch were maintained in both the water saving systems for comparison. Mulches significantly improved the growth of rice crop in terms of leaf area index, crop growth rate, leaf area duration and dry matter accumulation of rice compared with the no mulch. Similarly, the rice grain quality was also significantly improved by the mulch application. Mulch application increased the brown and white rice length, brown and white rice recovery percentage. The plastic mulch was more effective than straw mulch in improving the growth and grain quality of rice under AWD and AR. AWD was more effective in improving the rice grain quality compared with the AR. In crux, either of the plastic or straw mulch can be applied in fine grain basmati rice fields in order to improve the crop growth and grain quality. The effectiveness of plastic mulch surpasses the efficiency of straw mulch.

• 出版日期2015