Crop performance and water productivity of transplanted rice as affected by seedling age and seedling density under alternate wetting and drying conditions in Lao PDR

Abstract

Drought is common under rainfed lowlands in Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and with the uncertain onset of rains during the wet season, delay in transplanting results in yield reduction. This study aims to explore ways to ameliorate the negative influence of delayed transplanting on rice crop. A field experiment was conducted for two wet seasons to investigate the effect of seedling age and seedling density on crop performance in terms of grain yield and water productivity. The experiment was laid out in a split–split plot design in four replicates, with seedling age as the main plot, seedling density as the subplot, and varieties as the sub-sub plot. In both years, there were significant seedling age and variety interactions on grain yield. Higher grain yields were observed with older seedlings having stronger tillering propensity. Seedling density did not affect grain yields in both years, but on grain yield components. Shorter duration variety received less supplemental irrigation than longer duration varieties. Late transplanting improved total water productivity but decreased irrigation water productivity due to harvesting delay. The total crop growth duration (from sowing to maturity) was prolonged with transplanting delay. However, the total stay of plants in the main field (from transplanting to maturity) was reduced by 3–5 d for every 10 d delay in transplanting. The results indicated that a good selection of varieties and increasing seedling density improve crop performance and water productivity with delayed transplanting