Vol. 11, Issue 9 (2022)

Author(s):
Samba Siva Rao D, Dr. R Durai Singh, Dr. G Srinivasan, Dr. K Kumuth and Dr. P Saravana Pandian

Abstract:
Field experiment was conducted at Agricultural College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Madurai, Tamil Nadu during February 2020 to evaluate the impact of left-over rice straw after harvesting at different cutting heights (10 cm, 20 cm, and full rice straw) and microbial consortia on yield attributes, grain yield and straw yield. The experiment was laid out in split plot design and replicated thrice. The main plot contains different heights of rice straw i.e., 10 cm rice straw incorporation (M₁), 20 cm rice straw incorporation (M₂), full rice straw (M₃) and sub plots contains different microbial consortia along with cow dung and Urea i.e., Bio mineralizer (2 kg/tonne) (S₁), Bio mineralizer (2 Kg/tonne of residue) + Cow dung slurry (5%) + Urea (1%) (S₂), Pleurotus (5 kg/ha) (S₃), Pleurotus (5 kg/ha) + Cow dung slurry (5%) + Urea (1%) (S₄), Silica solubilizing bacteria (5 kg/ha) (S₅), Silica solubilizing bacteria (5 kg/ha) + Cow dung slurry (5%) + Urea (1%) (S₆), Control (S₇). The rice straw residue produced by different cutting heights were 950, 1500, 4600 kg ha^-1 for 10 cm, 20 cm and full rice straw, respectively. Rice straw with different heights decomposed with addition of microbial consortia, cow dung and urea increased the nutrient availability and uptake by succeeding maize crop. The higher yield attributes and yield were recorded in the full rice straw decomposition along with the spraying of bio-mineralizer (2 kg t^-1) + cow dung slurry (5%) + urea (1%) and it was on par with full rice straw decomposition along with the spraying of Silica solubilizing bacteria (5 kg/ha) + Cow dung slurry (5%) + Urea (1%).