~ 422 ~ International Journal of Chemical Studies 2019; 7(1): 422-424 P-ISSN: 2349–8528 E-ISSN: 2321–4902 IJCS 2019; 7(1): 422-424 © 2019 IJCS Received: 17-11-2018 Accepted: 20-12-2018 Jagruti Mahapatra Department of Agronomy (Water Management), APGC, ANGRAU, Lam, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India K Chandrasekhar Department of Agronomy (Water Management), APGC, ANGRAU, Lam, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India N Venkata Lakshmi Department of Agronomy (Water Management), APGC, ANGRAU, Lam, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India KL Narasimha Rao Department of Agronomy (Water Management), APGC, ANGRAU, Lam, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India S Prathibha Sree Department of Agronomy (Water Management), APGC, ANGRAU, Lam, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India Correspondence Jagruti Mahapatra Department of Agronomy (Water Management), APGC, ANGRAU, Lam, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, India Effect of deficit irrigation practices on growth and yield of transplanted rice ( Oryza sativa L.) Jagruti Mahapatra, K Chandrasekhar, N Venkata Lakshmi, KL Narasimha Rao and S Prathibha Sree Abstract A field trial was conducted on transplanted rice on clay soils of the Agricultural College Farm, Bapatla to study the effect of growth and yield of rice under deficit irrigation during kharif, 2017-18. The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with seven treatments and three replications. Continuous submergence of 5 cm throughout the growth period (T1) resulted in increasing growth, yield attributes and yield of transplanted rice as compared to deficit irrigation treatments; however, AWD irrigation with 5 cm submergence till 5 cm depth of water receded below ground level in field water tubes (T6) was found to be suitable without considerable reduction in yield simultaneously reducing the water use by 26 % compared to that of continuous submergence. Keywords: Rice, alternate wetting and drying (AWD), growth and yield Introduction Rice is the staple food of more than a half of the world population especially the Asian countries. The demand for rice is increasing with population growth, but the growing scarcity of fresh water may pose the problems for rice production in the years to come. The area under rice production in India (43.99 m ha) is the largest among all the rice growing countries with an annual production of 109.69 million tonnes and productivity of 2.49 t/ha (www.indiastat.com). Generally, rice demands higher water inputs than other cereal crops. Water required to produce 1.0 kg of rice is about 3000- 5000 liters (Geethalakshmi et al., 2011) [3] . It is estimated that, by 2025, about 2 million ha of Asia’s irrigated dry season rice and 13 million ha of irrigated wet season rice are going to be experiencing water scarcity (Tuong and Bouman., 2003). Meanwhile rapid population growth demands more rice production; so, need of the hour is to produce rice with less water (deficit irrigation) while increasing both land and water productivity. Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) method of irrigation has been evolved as one of the water saving options where instead of full irrigation, deficit irrigation is being practiced. Here alternate cycles of saturated and unsaturated conditions are maintained and irrigation water is applied to obtain flooded conditions after a certain number of days have elapsed after the disappearance of ponded water. So, the present study was carried out to study the effect of deficit irrigation on growth and yield of transplanted rice. Material and methods A field experiment was conducted during kharif, 2017-18 of the Agricultural college farm, Bapatla. The soil of the experimental field was clayey in texture, moderately alkaline (pH-8.5) in reaction, low available nitrogen (188 kg ha -1 ), medium in available phosphorus (15 kg ha -1 ) and available potassium (187 kg ha -1 ). The experiment was laid out in randomized block design with seven treatments and three replications. The treatments included continuous submergence of 3-5 cm depth from transplanting to maturity (T 1 ), irrigation with ponded water depth of 3 cm at weekly interval from 15 DAT to maturity (T 2 ), irrigation with ponded water depth of 5 cm at weekly interval from 15 DAT to maturity (T 3 ), AWD with 3 cm submergence till 5 cm depth of water receded below ground level (BGL) in field water tubes from 15 DAT to maturity (T 4 ), AWD with 3 cm submergence till 10 cm depth of water receded BGL in field water tubes from 15 DAT to maturity (T 5 ), AWD with 5 cm submergence till 5 cm depth of water receded BGL in field water tubes from 15 DAT to maturity (T 6 ), AWD with 5 cm