Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 89 (9): 1529–35, September 2019/Article Effect of natural safe rock minerals on growth, yield and quality of rice (Oryza sativa) in rice-wheat cropping system SANTOSH RANVA 1 , Y V SINGH 2 , NEELAM JAIN 3 , RAMESH C BANA 4 , R S BANA 5 and DEWA RAM BAJYA 6 ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110 012, India Received: 27 November 2018; Accepted: 23 July 2019 ABSTRACT A feld experiment was conducted during two Kharif seasons of 2016 and 2017 at the research farm of ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi to study the effect of Safe Rock Mineral (SRM) on productivity and quality of rice in rice-wheat cropping system. The experiment was carried out in randomized block design with three replications involving two rice (Oryza sativa) establishment methods (aerobic rice and transplanted rice) and six crop nutrition levels on rice-wheat sequence. The results indicate that, in general transplanted rice performed comparatively better in terms of growth, yield and quality parameters compared to aerobic rice. Different nutritional level improved the productivity of rice and succeeding wheat crop in both the years signifcantly. Among nutrient management practices, highest plant growth, yield attributes and yield of rice were obtained with the application of SRM application @ 250 kg/ha + 100% RDF and it was followed by No SRM application + 100% RDF, SRM application @ 250 kg/ha + 50% RDF (Chemical) + 25% RDF (Organic-FYM) and SRM application @ 250 kg/ha + 50% RDF (Organic-FYM). Integrated nutrient management with SRM application @ 250 kg/ha + 100% RDF increased grain protein content signifcantly over only SRM application @ 250 kg/ha. An increase of 16.42% and 18.07% in grain protein was recorded under aerobic and transplanted method of rice, respectively. It was concluded that integrated application of SRM @ 250 kg/ha + 100% RDF gave the highest growth and productivity of rice and with this treatment grain yield was 32.2% and 32.9% higher than only SRM application at @ 250 kg/ha under aerobic and transplanted conditions respectively. Key words: Aerobic rice, Farmyard manure, Rice quality, Safe Rock Mineral, Transplanted rice Rice is grown globally on an area of about 163.2 million ha with a production of about of 751.9 million tonnes and average productivity of 4.61 t/ha (FAO 2017). In India, rice ranks frst among all the crops occupying around 44 million ha and production of 110.2 million tonnes of rice with average productivity of 2.51 t/ha (DAC&FW 2018). It has been estimated that approximately half the global population subsists wholly or partially on rice whereas nearly 90% of the world’s rice is grown and consumed in Asia (Bana 2009). In South Asia, around 13.5 million hectares area, including 10.5 million hectares in India, rice is grown in rotation with wheat (Bana et al. 2015). Rice– wheat (R-W) rotation is the largest agriculture production 1 Ph D Scholar (e-mail: rudransh972013@gmail.com), 3 Assoc Professor (email: neelam.aseri@gmail.com), Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Jaipur, Rajasthan, 2 Principal Scientist (e-mail: yvsingh63@yahoo.co.in), 5 Scientist (e-mail: rsbana@gmail.com), ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi,4SKN Agriculture University, Jobner, Jaipur (e-mail: banajaitpura11@gmail.com), 6 Scientist (e-mail: deva. bajya@gmail.com), Division of Biosciences Institute of Pesticide Formulation Technology, Sector 20, Gurugram. system in South Asia and is fundamental to employment and income (Singh and Kaur 2012). The R-W system is source of livelihoods for millions of people and is kingpin of food security of the region (Bana et al. 2013). During past decades, the R-W system is showing the sign of fatigue because of continuous use of traditional practices and imbalance and indiscriminate use of synthetic fertilizer which resulted in yield stagnation and declining factor productivity (Ladha et al. 2003; Bhatt et al. 2016). Such emerging challenges have put a big question mark on the sustainability of rice and wheat.The productivity and quality of rice dependson agronomic management practices mainly nutrient management (Singh 1998). Utilization of indigenous sources of organic nutrient source as alternatives and/or supplements to chemical fertilizers is not only a strategy to achieve economic and ecological sustainability but also help in increasing the productivity (Bana et al. 2012; Bana et al. 2016). But availability of organic sources for effective nutrient management is not suffcient in India. Therefore, natural rocks and minerals can be a suitable alternative for effcient organic nutrient management. Safe Rock Minerals (SRM) may be one of the option for crop nutrition which is reported as one of the natural 161