Abstract:
Organic rice farming has gained increasing attention throughout the world in recent past. Therefore, best rice
varieties needed to be identified to perform well under organic conditions for increasing rice grain yield.This study
was carried out at Regional Rice Research Center, Bombuwela to identify the best improved and traditional rice
varieties for organic farming. Seven improved Bw361, Bw363, Bw364, Bw 272-6b, Bg359, Bw 03-1073, Bw 05-1621
and two traditional rice varieties Herath banda and Murungakayan were cultivated under Randomized Complete
Block Design with three replicates. A total of five (05) agronomic traits (Growth rate at seedling stage (GR),Culm
Length (CL), Panicle length (PL), Days to 50% flowering (DF), Days to maturity (DM),and five (05) yield
characteristics (Panicle weight (PW), Number of spikelets per panicle (NS), Number of filled spikelets per panicle
(NFS),100 grain weight (SW)/ Net plot yield (GY) were measured from selected 10 plants per each plot. Analysis of
variance performed on the selected traits revealed that improved varieties, Bw 361,Bw 363, Bw 364 Bw 359 and
traditional variety Murungakayan were the best for organic farming. Among them Bw 361, Bg359, Bw 363 yielded
above 4t/ha (over 80bu/ac) under organic condition in low country wet zone.
