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Sirusuwada of Kothuru (mandal), Srikakulam (Dist) flood prone village under NICRA project. Here climatic is very erratic. Some times flood immediately follows by drought. Paddy is the main crop and farmers are growing varieties like BPT 5204, SWARNA, MTU 1001 which are susceptible to flooding although have high yield potential and market demand in the district. KVK Srikakulam has demonstrated paddy varieties PLA 1100, RGL 2537 and Indra in 14 farmers’ fields covering 5.4 hectares. Merits and demerits of demo varieties are:
PLA 1100 :
Fine grain, crop duration 160 days, suitable for low lying inundated areas and tolerant to flood at any stage of crop growth. However, sprouting of grains occur if prolonged rain coincides with harvesting, the variety is of shattering type.
RGL 2537 (Srikakulam Sannalu) :
Suitable for late planting situation with over aged seedlings, also able to tolerate short period of inundation (4-5 days), but not for prolonged inundation. Fine grain variety with crop duration of 165 days.
MTU 1061 (Indra): This is also flood tolerant non-lodging, fine grain variety with crop duration of 150 days. It has got dormancy of 2-3 weeks. It can tolerate inundation up to 10 days only at later stages of crop growth but not during early stage.
There was heavy rainfall at different crop growth stages and details are mentoned below in the table:
|
Month of 2012 |
No. of rainy days |
Rain fall (mm) |
Stage of the crop |
|
July |
3 |
30.7 |
Around two weeks old transplanted seedlings |
|
August |
2 |
40.6 |
Tillering stage |
|
September |
11 |
273.0 |
Maximum tillering to panicle Initiation stage |
|
October |
3 |
44.6 |
Flowering to Grain formation stage |
|
November |
4 |
143.0 |
Milking to Grain hardening stage |
|
Observations recorded for different varieties |
|
Plant characters |
RGL 2537 |
PLA 1100 |
INDRA (MTU 1061) |
SWARNA (MTU 7029) |
|
Root volume (mm) |
520 |
510 |
390 |
420 |
|
Root length (cm) |
27.5 |
21.0 |
14.0 |
17.0 |
|
Plant height (cm) |
130 |
106 |
129 |
116 |
|
No. of Tillers per Hill |
23 |
25 |
24 |
23 |
|
No. of panicles per hill |
19 |
23 |
19 |
19 |
|
Panicle length (cm) |
30 |
26 |
27 |
23 |
|
No. Of Spike lets per panicle |
14 |
17 |
13 |
13 |
|
No. Of grains per panicle |
290 |
322 |
250 |
255 |
|
Performance of different paddy varieties in relation to yield is given below in the table: |
|
Variety |
PLA 1100 |
INDRA |
RGL 2537 |
Swarna |
BPT 5204 |
MTU 1001 |
|
AverageYield (q /ha) |
58.4 |
54.6 |
56.5 |
49.2 |
48.6 |
51.0 |
|
Cost of Cultivation (Rs /ha) |
40,000 |
40,000 |
40,000 |
40,000 |
40,000 |
40,000 |
|
Gross Income (Rs /ha) |
73,000 |
68,250 |
70,625 |
61,500 |
72,900 |
63,750 |
|
B:C ratio |
1.82:1 |
1.70:1 |
1.76:1 |
1.53:1 |
1.82:1 |
1.59:1 |
There was highest inundation at maturity stage of crop growth due to rains received from 1st-5th November 2012 and over flown water from the canal. This situation was tolerated by PLA 1100 followed by RGL 2537 and Indra where as Swarna got completely damaged.
