Plant growth characters and productivity of wetland rice (Oryza sativa L.) as affected by application of different manures

The experiment was conducted at the Agronomy field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh (90°33´ E longitude and 23^077´ N latitude) during June to November, 2008 with a view to observe the comparative performance of different organic manures and inorganic fertilizers on the growth and productivity of transplanted rice. The experiment comprises of 10 treatments viz. T1 (Control), T2 (Green manure @ 15 t ha^-1), T3 (Green manure @ 15 t ha^-1 + N40P6K36S10 i.e.50% NPK), T4 (Poultry manure @ 4 t ha^-1), T5 (Poultry manure @ 4 t ha^-1 + N40P6K36S10 i.e. 50% NPK), T6 (Cowdung @ 12 t ha^-1), T7 (Cowdung @ 12 t ha^-1 + N40P6K36S10 i.e. 50% NPK), T8 (Vermicompost @ 8 t ha^-1), T9 (Vermicompost @ 8 t ha^-1 + N40P6K36S10 i.e. 50% NPK) and T10 (N80P12K72S10 i.e.100% NPK). Plant characters, yield attributes and yield were significantly influenced by different treatments. Except plant height, total tiller per hills and biological yield all the parameters were found to be highest with the treatment T5 (Poultry manure @ 4 t ha^-1 + N40P6K36S10 i.e. 50% NPK). From our study we observed that among the treatments T5 (Poultry manure @ 4 t ha^-1 + 50% of recommended NPK) produced the highest grain yield (4.79 t ha^-1) of rice which was statistically identical to T10 (100% of recommended NPK) and T9 (Vermicompost @ 8 t ha-1 + N40P6K36S10) which resulted grain yield of 4.57 t ha-1 and 4.51 t ha-1, respectively. Vermicompost was found as the best manures when it was applied alone. The economic analysis also showed that the application of T5 maximized the profit and benefit-cost ratio (BCR) was the height (1.75) in the treatment which was almost similar to T10. The lowest BCR (1.07) was obtained from control treatment (T1).