Farmers’ participatory performance evaluation of TRY 3 rice variety in high rainfall zone of Tamil Nadu

Rice is the most staple food crop of high rainfall zone of Tamil Nadu and lack of suitable variety in late Samba (September-January) season is the most important bottleneck in production of rice. Farmers’ participatory frontline demonstrations were conducted in ten farmers’ fields with rice variety TRY 3 which was compared with existing ruling variety (TPS 3) in the zone. It was found that increased number of tillers (526.6/m²), productive tillers (460/m²), panicle length (34.5 cm), number of grains (164.2/panicle), number of filled grains (140.4/panicle) and grain yield (6, 880 kg/ha) were recorded in TRY 3 rice variety compared to local variety TPS 3. Variety TRY 3 also led to higher gross return (Rs 1, 12, 440/ha), net return (Rs 56, 330/ha) and B-C ratio (1.97) as compared to the local variety. Bold grain type of TRY 3 and equal or better unit market price also encouraged the farmers for cultivation of TRY 3 rice variety.