Effect of Fertilizers on Yield and Yield Contributing Characters of Local Aromatic Aman Rice Varieties in Sylhet Region

A pot experiment was conducted at the experimental net house of the Department of Soil Science, Sylhet Agricultural University, Sylhet, Bangladesh to observe the effect of variety and fertilizer on yield and yield contributing character of local aromatic rice varieties during the Aman season of 2015. Five aromatic rice varieties (Kalizira: V1, Muktasail: V2, Nagrasail: V3, Maloti: V4 and Chinigura: V5) and four levels of fertilizer (Recommended dose: F1 i.e. 45-10-20-10-0.5 kg ha-1 of N-P-K-S-Zn, 2/3rd of recommended dose: F2, 1/3rd of recommended dose: F3, and Control: F4) were used with three replication following RCBD. Recorded yield and yield contributing characters were panicle length, a number of effective and non-effective tillers hill-1, grains panicle-1, sterile spikelets panicle-1, total spikelets panicle-1, 1000-grain weight, grain yield, straw yield, harvest index, panicle emergence days, and total maturity days. With few exceptions, yield and yield contributing characters of the aromatic rice varieties were significantly affected due to the application of different fertilizer levels. The highest grain yield was recorded in Nagrasail variety (65.33 g pot-1) followed by Kalizira (65.26 g pot-1) with the recommended dose of fertilizers while the lowest yield (24.31 g pot-1) was obtained in Maloti with control. Straw yield was the highest (174.07 g pot-1) in Maloti with the recommended dose of fertilizers but the lowest yield (61.70 g pot-1) was recorded in Kalizira variety with control. The overall results indicated that recommended dose of all chemical fertilizers optimized the yield of aromatic rice.