The effect of nitrogen and zinc application on yield and some agronomic characters of rice cv. BRRI dhan33

ABSTRACT: A field experiment was conducted in agronomy experimental field of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh during T. aman season in 2011 on BRRI dhan33 to find out the effect of nitrogen (N) and zinc (Zn) application. The experiment was laid in a split-plot design with three replications having N in the main plots and Zn fertilizer in the sub-plots. Five N levels viz. 0 (control), 50, 70, 90 and 110 kg ha-1 N were utilized where urea was used as nitrogen source which top-dressed at three equal installments at 7, 25 and 40 DAT. On the other hand three levels of Zn i.e. 0 (control), 2.5, and 5 kg ha-1 Zn were applied as ZnSO4.7H2O and broadcasted on soil surface and incorporated with cultivator as basal dose. All the agronomic operations except those under study were kept constant and uniform throughout the experimentation. From the result it was observed that all the yield components significantly increase with N and Zn application though had increased but not significantly indicating that a still higher level of N and Zn may be required to obtain a significance difference. The highest (4.56 t ha-1) grain yield was obtained from 90 kg ha-1 N application, on the other hand from 2.5 kg ha-1 Zn (4.29 t ha-1) application. Finally, it was observed that combination effect of 90 kg ha-1 coupled with 2.5 kg ha-1gave significantly the highest grain yield (5.38 t ha-1).