Management of water stress through different Irrigation scheduling and drought mitigation techniques on performance of wet seeded rice

The field experiment was conducted at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Killikulam during early kar season of 2020- 2021 for the management of water stress caused by different irrigation scheduling practices and drought mitigation technologies on physiological parameters, irrigation water parameters, grain and straw yield of wet seeded rice. The experiment was laid out in a split plot design with four main plots and four sub plots and replicated thrice. The main plot consists of various irrigation scheduling practices viz., irrigation based on the alternate wetting and drying, IW/CPE ratio, field water tube at 15 cm depletion and it was compared with conventional method of irrigation. The subplot consists of drought mitigation techniques like seed treatment with 1% PPFM + 1% foliar spray at critical stages, foliar spray of 50 ppm paclobutrazol at critical stages, Seed treatment with AM fungi + soil application @ 100g/m2 and compared with control. ASD 16 rice variety was used for this study. The study results showed that continuous flooding recorded the better performance in term of relative water content, root length, root volume, dry matter production, grain and straw yield of 6762 and 7325 Kg ha-1, respectively and same treatment having higher water consumption and in-turn lower water use efficiency. Application of 1% PPFM through seed treatment + 1% foliar spray gives the higher yield (6377 and 7130 kg ha-1) among the sub plot treatments. Similarly, alternate wetting and drying method of irrigation coupled with 1% PPFM through seed treatment + 1% foliar spray produced the identical performance on physiological parameters, grain and straw yield along with high water use efficiency apart from saving of 27% of water than continuous flooding.