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MORPHOLOGICAL AND QUALITY PARAMETERS OF ORYZA SATIVA L. AS AFFECTED BY POPULATION DYNAMICS, NITROGEN FERTILIZATION AND IRRIGATION REGIMES

S. AHMAD^1*, M. ZIA-UL-HAQ¹, H. ALI¹, A. AHMAD², M.A. KHAN¹, T. KHALIQ², Z. HUSNAIN¹, A. HUSSAIN² AND G. HOOGENBOOM³

Abstract: Quality of the produce is as much important as quantity in all walks of life and particularly in directly consuming commodities. The present study was conducted to compare the morphological and quality of the field grown rice as effected by population dynamics, nitrogen fertilization and irrigation regimes. Field experiments were carried out at University of Agriculture, Faisalabad (UAF), Pakistan for two years. The results revealed that population dynamics did not significantly effect the quality parameters. However, nitrogen fertilization and irrigation regimes have significant and linear impact upon quality attributes of fine transplanted rice under field conditions. From the two years data it can safely be recommended that application of 200 kg ha^-1 of nitrogen and 48 plants m^-2 is the most appropriate to obtain optimum response of yield and kernel quality under the prevailing conditions. Moreover, irrigation regime of 107.5 cm seems more appropriate than lower or higher rates of irrigation application under the water scarcity situations. In the present scenario the severity of water shortage is increasing in Pakistan, therefore, deficit irrigation should be applied. Simple correlation coefficients were also studied between grain yield and yield components of rice crop for both experiments, having highly positive and highly negative relation.

^1*Department of Agronomy & Chemistry, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan-60800, Pakistan

²Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-38040, Pakistan

³Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of Georgia, Griffin, GA 30223-1731, USA

^*Corresponding author e-mail: shakeel.agronomy@gmail.com