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INFLUENCE OF SEED QUALITY AND SOIL FERTILITY

MANAGEMENT ON THE PRODUCTIVITY OF RICE (ORYZA

SATIVA L.) IN THE GUINEA SAVANNA OF GHANA

W. Dogbe,1 I.K. Dzomeku,2 B. Salifu Yahaya,2 Aliyu Siise,1 Elijah Ofosu Krofa1 and S.A. Awuakye2

1CSIR-Savanna Agricultural Research Institute, Tamale, Ghana; 2University for Development Studies, Tamale, Ghana

Paper presented at the 3rd Africa Rice CongressYaoundé, Cameroon, 21–24 October 2013.

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INTRODUCTIONSeed quality is the degree of excellence of a seed when compared to an

acceptable standard seed and satisfies genetic purity, good health and physiological

purity for viability and vigour.

Poor quality seed gives poor seedling vigor, non uniform growth and maturity and

prone to pest and diseases (Ellis et al., 1995). Good quality seeds have high return

per unit area as the genetic potential of the crop can be fully exploited.

Planting good quality seed is often taken for granted, as farmers resort to using

their seedlot with resultant yield loss.

Rice is a heavy feeder and extremely sensitive to the amount and balance of

nutrients in the soil,

A suitable combination of organic and inorganic source of nutrients was reported to

give sustainable production (Reganold et al., 1990; WARDA, 2002).

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OBJECTIVESThe present study was to determine how seed quality and/or optimum organic/inorganic soil amendments influence yield components and grain yield of Gbewaa rice in the Guinea savannah ecology.

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2. MATERIALS AND METHODS2.1 Site Description The trial was conducted at the experimental field of the Savannah

Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), Nyankpala, near Tamale, in the Northern Guinea Savanna ecological zone during 2011 and 2012 cropping seasons. Nyankpala lies on altitude ±183m, latitude 09º 25’ 41’’N and longitude 0º 58’ 42’’W.

Rainfall pattern is unimodal with mean annual rainfall of 1000-1200mm fairly distributed from April-November.

The area has high temperature in the day time and cool temperature at night with mean monthly minimum of 23.4ºC and maximum of 34.5ºC and a minimum RH of 46% and maximum of 76.8%.

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TABLE 1 EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENTS

FACTORS CODE OF TREATMENTS1. Seed quality 2. Soil amendments

Farmers seed (FS)

Control T1HRR (125kg/ha NPK + 60kgN/ha) T2HRR+1.5 t/ha Compost T3RR (250kg/ha NPK + 120kgN/ha) T4RR+3 t/ha Compost T5

Certified seed (CS)

Control T6HRR (125kg/ha NPK + 60kgN/ha) T7HRR+1.5 t/ha Compost T8RR (250kg/ha NPK + 120kgN/ha) T9RR+ 3 t/ha Compost T10

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RESULTS

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TABLE 2. SEED QUALITY AND SOIL AMENDMENT ON RICE PARAMETERS

FACTORS 2011

Seed quality

Soil amendment Panicle length cm

No. of seeds per panicle

1000 seed wt(g)

Farmers seed

Control 18.5 53.8 21.7

HRR (125kg/ha NPK + 60kgN/ha) 19.8 77.0 23.3

HRR+1.5 t/ha Compost 21.0 84.3 23.7

RR (250kg/ha NPK + 120kgN/ha) 23.0 109.5 24.6

RR+3 t/ha Compost 23.0 118.0 24.9

Certified seed*

Control 17.0 64.5 21.0

HRR (125kg/ha NPK + 60kgN/ha) 21.0 70.8 23.6

HRR+1.5 t/ha Compost 22.0 84.8 24.2

RR (250kg/ha NPK + 120kgN/ha) 24.0* 115.3 25.3 *

RR+ 3 t/ha Compost 25.0* 127.5 * 25.9 *

LSD(5%)

1.98 7.48 0.79

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TABLE 3 EFFECT OF SEED QUALITY ON SOME PARAMATERS

Seed quality

Days to 50% flowering

Plant height (cm)

Tiller count

Paniclenumber

Panicle weight (g)

2011 Farmers seed

93 58.7 13.95 12 24.56

Certified* seed

97 63.1 15.85 14 26.68

LSD 2.0 3.88 0.891 0.75 1.190

2012Farmers seed

98 76.8 17.85 15.6 24.31

Certified* seed

110 87.8 19.85 17.8 26.23

LSD 2.0 4.78 0.94 1.41 1.189

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FIG. 1. EFFECT OF SEED QUALITY ON GRAIN YIELD IN 2011 AND 2012.

Farmers seed 2011

Certified seed 20111

Farmers seed 2012

Certified seed 2012

2050

2100

2150

2200

2250

2300

Seed quality

Gra

in y

ield

(kg/

ha)

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FIG. 2. EFFECT OF SOIL AMENDMENT ON GRAIN YIELD IN 2011.

Contro

lHRR

HRR + 1.5

ton/

ha co

mpost RR

RR + 3 t

on/ h

a com

post

0

1000

2000

3000

Soil amendment

Gra

in y

ield

(kg/

ha)

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FIG. 3. EFFECT OF SOIL AMENDMENT ON GRAIN YIELD

Control HRR HRR + 1.5 ton/

ha compost

RR RR + 3 ton/ ha

compost

0500

100015002000250030003500

Soil amendment

Gra

in y

ield

(kg/

ha)

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FIG. 4. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NUMBER OF SEEDS AND GRAIN YIELD.

4 6 8 10 12 14 16 180

500100015002000250030003500 f(x) = 240.951618175875 x − 427.870219025825

R² = 0.696197664693963

Number of panicles

Gra

in y

ield

(kg/

ha)

Fig. 6. The relationship between number of seeds and Grain yield.

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FIG. 5. RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN 1000 SEED WEIGHT AND GRAIN YIELD.

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 270

500100015002000250030003500

f(x) = 449.653398859917 x − 8488.95262587173R² = 0.796704575087736

1000 seed weight (g)

Gra

in y

ield

(kg/

ha)

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CONCLUSION 1This experiment was set up to determine the influence

of seed quality and soil fertility management on the yield components and grain yield of Jasmine 85 rice in the Guinea savannah zone.

Seed quality and soil fertility management determined three yield components, i.e. Panicle length, Panicle weight and 1000 seed weight

Certified seed was superior to farmer saved seed and overwhelmingly promoted most of the parameters investigated.

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CONCLUSION 2Recommended rate of inorganic fertilizer at 250 kg NPK/ha plus 120 kg urea/ha as basal and top-dressing applications respectively, was sometimes adequate to support the performance of production.

However, the effect of the recommended fertilizer rate supplemented with 3tons/ha of compost was overwhelming.

The results of this study re-emphasised the need to build the capacity of farmers in using Certified seed and the integration of crop-livestock into the farming systems in the Guinea savannah zone.

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