Nitrogen and zinc management in transplanted rice (Oryza sativa L.)

The present investigation entitled “Nitrogen and Zinc management in transplanted rice (Oryza sativa L.)” was carried out during kharif season 2024 at the Instructional Cum Research Farm, Barrister Thakur Chhedilal College of Agriculture and Research Station, Bilaspur (C.G.). The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with three replications. The treatments consisted of seven nutrient management practices viz., (T₁) Control 100% PK, (T₂) RDF (NPK 100:60:40 kg ha^-1), (T₃) 100% RDF + Zn + nano N foliar spray once at 20 DAT, (T₄) 100% PK + 75% N + Zn + nano N foliar spray twice at 20 & 40 DAT, (T₅) 100% PK + 75% N + Zn + nano N foliar spray thrice at 20, 40 & 60 DAT, (T₆) 100% PK + 50% N + Zn + nano N foliar spray twice at 20 & 40 DAT and (T₇) 100% PK + 50% N + Zn + nano N foliar spray thrice at 20, 40 & 60 DAT. The results showed that growth parameters, viz., plant height, number of tillers and yield attributes viz., panicle length (26.23 cm), number of grain panicle^-1 (155.04), number of panicles hill^-1 (10.74) and test weight (24.16 g) was found to be higher under treatment T₅ - 100% PK + 75% N + Zn + nano N foliar spray thrice at 20, 40 & 60 DAT, followed by T₄ - 100% PK + 75% N + Zn + nano N foliar spray twice at 20 & 40 DAT. The yield parameters like grain yield and straw yield, recorded maximum yield (53.43 q ha⁻¹) under T₅ - 100% PK + 75% N + Zn + nano N foliar spray thrice at 20, 40 & 60 DAT, followed by T₄ (50.81 q ha⁻¹), (T₃) (48.06 q ha⁻¹) and (T₂) (46.87 q ha^-1). The economic parameters like gross returns, net returns and B:C ratio was significantly superior under treatment T₅ - 100% PK + 75% N + Zn + nano N foliar spray thrice at 20, 40 & 60 DAT highest gross return (137403.67 ₹ ha^-1) and this treatment also gave highest net return (93595.14 ₹ ha^-1) and B:C ratio 2.14. However, lowest gross return (69409.37 ₹ ha^-1) lowest net return (31814.04 ₹ ha^-1) and lowest B:C ratio (0.85) was obtained under treatment T₁ - Control 100% PK.