Rice plantanttion management

RICE PLANTATION MANAGEMENT

Fertilisation

. Needed fertilizers, their importance and application time

No	Fertilizer importance	Fertilizer Type	Quantity	Comments
1	Basal fertilizer	NPK (17-17-17)	10kg/ 500 m2 or 200 Kg/Ha	- It is applied before planting. - It helps rice seedlings to grow well at the beginning of tillering. - All amounts of Phosphorus and Potash minerals are applied as basal fertilizer.
2	Top dressing fertilizer: first application at the beginning of panicle initiation	Urea (46%)	2.5kg/ 500 m2 or 50Kg/Ha	- Top dressing urea is applied 30 days after transplanting - Increasing rice tillering ability to increases the number of panicle per m2
3	Top dressing fertilizer: second application at panicle formation	Urea (46%)	2.5kg/ 500 m2 or 50Kg/Ha	- Urea application at boosting stage - Mitigation of degradation of glumaceous  flowers - Increasing the number of grains per panicle and reducing unfilled grains.

 

Water management

Water is a precious and scarce resource input in rice

• production, so it is very important that irrigation water is used wisely and efficiently.
• The farmer must insure that needed water is available at the different growth stages of rice:

-  Transplanting to Tillering stage: the plant is vulnerable to water shortage. lack of sufficient water causes growth delay or even failure to the crop recover.

- Tillering- panicle initiation: in this stage, plants resist to low water content. Water level can be kept as low as possible to accelerate tillering.

- Panicle initiation- flowering: prevent water shortage

- Flowering- maturity: transpiration is high from heading/flowering period onwards. Water shortage will increase imperfect grains and affect ripening negatively. Drainage is done 15-20 days after heading to hasten maturity and to prevent excessive nitrogen intake.

Weeding 

• Preventive method: Use of paddy seeds without contamination of weed seeds, and keep soil bund and canals free of weeds.
• Push rotary weeder in between rows as seen in picture. This weeder has the function to incorporate juvenile weeds/weed seed into soil to suppress weed infestation (Figure 17)

Figure 17: Weed control with a rotary weeder

Canals and bunds

• Rice growing involves infrastructures such as canals and bunds. The farmer must take care of them and use them efficiently since water is a determining factor to rice production.
• Cultural method: good land preparation, flooding.