Evaluation of Agronomic and Yield Characteristics o f Selected Rice Varieties Grown Under Organic Conditions

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.