Influence of Nitrogen Levels and Microbial Inoculation on Growth, Yield and Straw of Direct Seeded Basmati Rice (Oryza sativa L.)

Rice, a staple cereal, serves as the primary food for almost 50% of the world's population. Nitrogen is the predominant mineral element found in crops and serves as the primary constraint on rice production. Direct-seeded rice cultivation has emerged as a potential alternative to traditional transplanting method. The goal is to provide insights that may be used to build sustainable agricultural methods that are specifically designed for basmati rice production.

This study aim to evaluate the effect of different N application levels (M₁: 0 kg ha^-1, M₂: 40 kg ha^-1 and M₃: 60 kg ha^-1) options as first factor with four microbial inoculation treatments (S₁-Control, S₂-Azosprillum (618 g/ha) + Streptomyces's (618g/ha), S₃- Consortium (1235 g/ha) and S₄- AMF (1235 g/ha). The experiment was conducted using a split-plot design (SPD) with three replications.

The study revealed that the maximum yield and yield attributes viz. plant height (116.47 cm), effective tillers (354.13 m²), leaf area index (2.64), no. of grains per panicle (84.17), length of panicle (24.66 cm), no. of filled grains per panicle (125.0), grain yield (54.30 q ha^-1), straw yield ( 80.42 q ha^-1), biological yield (134.72 q ha^-1) and 1000-grain weight (24.64 g), maximum protein content (%) in grains (8.73%), straw (5.78%) was recorded in M₃S₂i.e. 60 kg N ha^-1 with azosprillum (618 g/ha) + streptomyces's (618 g/ha) significantly highest compared to other nitrogen levels and microbial inoculation treatments. Hence, the application of N @ 60 kg ha^-1 along with azosprillum (618 g/ha)+Streptomyces's (618 g/ha) can be suggested to achieve higher rice grain yield, yield attributes and nitrogen content in grain and straw in DSR.