Agricultural Science Digest - A Research Journal

A field experiment was conducted during the Kharif season of 2014 to assess the response of local rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars to different levels of nitrogen under rainfed upland conditions of Nagaland. Treatments consisted of factorial combination of 5 nitrogen levels viz., 0, 20, 40, 60, 80 N kg/ha and 2 cultivars viz., ‘Apaghi’ and ‘Inglongkiri’. The results of the study showed that increasing levels of nitrogen significantly enhanced growth characteristics and increased yield attributes of the upland rice cultivars. Application of 80 kg N/ha significantly enhanced plant height, number of green leaves per plant, number of tillers per running meter, crop growth rate (CGR), leaf area index (LAI) and root volume. The nitrogen dose at 80 kg/ha also recorded maximum number of grains per panicle, length of panicle, weight of panicle and the overall grain yield of 3197.00 kg/ha. Between the cultivars tested, the cultivar ‘Apaghi’ was found to be superior recording significantly higher panicle length and weight, number of grains per panicle and test weight ultimately recording the highest grain and straw yields of 3139.69 kg/ha and 4318.33 kg/ha respectively over the cultivar Inglongkiri.