INTRODUCTION
Rice (Oryza sativa, L.) is one of the most important and leading food
crops of the world and now is the major stable food of over half of the world
population. More important, it is the stable food in area of high population
density and fast population growth. The green revolution has enabled rice
production to meet the demand of the growing population and most of the
increased demand will be in developing countries.
The demand for food grains in Egypt had been increased and will
continue to increase with the increase in population and the rice in the standed
of living. Rice cultivated are ranges from 0.50 to 0.60 million hectare (1.2 to 1.5
million fed). The average of rice productivity in 2007 season was 10.0 t/ha (4.2
t/fed) and total rice production was 6.0 million through increasing yield per unit
area has been accomplished by some combined effects such as nitrogen
fertilization and transplanting methods.
Increasing nitrogen efficiency through the most important factors that
limit productivity of rice (Salem et al., 2005). Also, rice cultivars may differ in
their requirements of nitrogen levels to produce the maximum grain yield and
the highest technological properties of rice grains (Ebaid and Ghanem, 2000).
Planting methods play an important role in rice production. Transplanting
rice manually is a higher demanding operation equaling intensive labour for few
days in a season (El- Kasaby et at., 2002). Also, Abdou (1995) reported that the
manual transplanting gave a rice production more than the mechanical
transplanting. Also, Aref (1990) carried out comparative studies of different
mechanization methods on rice production. This investigation aimed to study
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the effect on productivity of rice convenential and mechanical cultivation
methods under N- fertilization levels.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
To achieve the aim of the present work, two field experiments were
carried out at the Experimental Farm, Faculty of Agriculture (Saba- Basha),
Alexandria University, Egypt, during 2012 and 2013 seasons. The experiments
were carried out to study the effect on the productivity of rice variety sakha 101
convenential and mechanical cultivation methods under N- fertilization levels.
A split plot design with three replications was used, the main plots were
occupied by nitrogen levels (40, 60 and 80 kg N/fed), while the subplots were
consisted of two planting methods (manual transplanting and mechanical
transplanting).
1- Manual transplanting
The nursery area was well prepared and rice seeds at a rate of 40
kg/feddan were socked for 24 hours and incubated for 24 hours, then the seeds
were handily broadcasted. Twenty five days old seedlings were transplanted at
the rate of 4 seedling/hill adopting a spaces of 15 × 15 cm.
2- Mechnaical transplanting
For transplanting rice, it is necessary to prepare the seedling, the paddy
field and then transplanted the paddy field with rice seedling.
Preparation of seedling
To use the rice transplanting, it is necessary to get a health seedling
through the nursery box.
Nursery box
It is fabricated from plastic, the inside dimensions of the nursery box are
58 cm length, 28cm width and 3cm depth.
Seedling the nursery box
For seedling the nursery box, the same stage as recommended by (rice
Mechanization Center, Meet El- Deba, Agric. Research. Institute) and a
Japanese textbook of farm machinery on the application of rice mechanical
transplanting.
Paddy field preparetion
The field was plowed by using Behira Rau 7 Shares chisel plow, the
plowing depth was 12 cm according to the recommendation of Abdel- Maksoud
et al. (1994). The water was floated to an average depth of 3 cm, and the soil
was compact about 24 hours after careful padding of its surface.
Seedling
For using the rice transplanting, the following conditions have been taken
in this experiment. The height around 25cm length of root within 50mm, tiller
within 2 as recommended by Ebaid et al. (2001).
Transplanting mechanism for mat seedling
The machine plants seedlings one by one by using separating time.
Transferring the fixed quantity of the seedling on the platform traversely to right
and left. When one cycle in finished and the mat seedling reaches the edge of
the platform the seedling is sent out below by a longitudinal transferring
mechanism and the plant form begins to save again.
The seedling- scparting and planting mechanism makes an approximate
elliptic motion at the extremity vis crank action by four links as shown in Fig (1).
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The stubbles are divided by times in order to plant the seedling. The tines press
the seedling into the soil, by Yammer diesel engine instruction book, Agricultural
machinery.
3- Nitrogen fertilization
Three nitrogen levels (40, 60 and 80kg N/fed) as urea form (46% N)
were applied 2/3 basal and corporate in to the dry soil before flooding and 1/3 at
panicle initiation.
Soil analysis
Soil samples were collected from 0- 30cm depth from the experimental
sites and the analysis is shown in Table (1) according to the method reported by
Page et al. (1982). Other cultural practices were deas recommended in rice
fields.
Table (1): Some physical and chemical properties of the experimental soil
in 2012 and 2013 seasons
Soil properties
Values
2012 2013
A- Particle size distribution %
Sand
Silt
Clay
Soil texture
14.30
42.00
43.40
Clay loam
14.20
42.70
43.10
Clay loam
B- Chemical properties
pH (1:1)
EC (1:1),
1- Soluble cations (1:2) (cmol/kg soil)
K+
Ca++
Mg++
Na+
7.80
3.40
1.37
14.20
11.40
13.20
7.70
3.50
1.41
15.30
11.30
13.50
2- Soluble anions (1:2) (cmol/kg soil)
CO-
3+ HCO-
3
CL
SO-
4
2.80
19.60
12.30
2.90
20.10
12.50
Calcium carbonate % 6.70 6.90
Total nitrogen % 0.85 0.87
Available P (mg/kg) 3.80 3.70
Organic matter % 1.50 1.45
Data recorded:
At harvest, plants of one square meter were taken from each plot and the
following characters were recorded: Plant height, Panicle length, number of
tillers/m2,number of panicles/m2, number of grains/panicle, number of filled
grains/panicle, 1000- grain weight, grain and straw yield/fed and biological yield
Guraded cm square meter of plants were the harvested manually and left three
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days for drying and biomass weight was taken, then mechanically threshed and
grain yield was estimated and adjusted to 14% moisture content.
Technological characters of grains
Grains samples (250 gm) from each sub- plot was taken to determine
some technological characters (Hullig %, Milling% and broken rice %). These
technology tests were carried out at Rice Technology Trainining Center (RTTC),
Alexandria.
All data collected were subjected to statistical analysis of variance
according to Gomez and Gomez (1984). The treatments average were
compared using L.S.D test at 0.05 level of significant.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A- Yield and its components:
Data in Tables (2 &3) showed that increasing nitrogen levels up to 80 kg
N/fed, significantly increased all yield and its components except plant height
was decreased by increasing nitrogen levels, this decrease due to nitrogen
application delay leaves aging and increased root activity during grain filling and
increase grain fertility which greatly increase grain yield. These results are in
similar with Abdel- Rahman et al. (1990), Hassan et al. (1990) and Ebaid et al.
(2001). This increase may be due to that increasing nitrogen supply minimized
the inter and intra- specific competing, then increased the amounts of
metabolites synthesized by rice plants.
The evaluated planting methods exerted highly significant effects on all
yield and its components except 1000- grain weight in both seasons Tables (2
&3). Manual transplanting produced the highest plant height (89.96 & 93.00
cm), panicle length (21.22 & 22.12 cm), number of tillers/m2 (519.67 & 633.78),
number of panicles/m2 (513.89 & 627.22), No. of grains/panicle (1352.56), No.
of filled grains/panicle (130.45), grain yield (3.92 & 5.24 t/fed), straw yield (7.12
& 10.25 t/fed) and biological yield (10.82 & 15.27 t/fed) than mechanical
transplanting. These data are in agreement with those reported by Abdou
(1995), Ebaid et al. (2001).
The interaction between nitrogen fertilizer and planting methods were
significant for yield and its components in both seasons.
B- Technological characters:
Data in Table (4) indicated the effect of nitrogen levels and planting
methods on hulling %, milling% and broken rice %. Increasing nitrogen level up
to 80 kg N/fed, significantly increased the technological grain characters
(hulling % and milling %) in both seasons, as well as up to 60 kg N/fed,
significant increase for broken rice % in both seasons. These results are in
agreement with (Ebaid, 1995 and Ebaid et al., 2001). They reported that
increasing nitrogen fertilizer significantly increased the technological characters
in rice plants grains.
Manual transplant significantly increased these technological characters
(hulling%, milling% and broken rice%) compared with the mechanical
transplanting in both seasons.
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Table 2: Effect of nitrogen levels and planting methods on rice yield and some yield components during 2012 and 2013
seasons
Treatments
Plant height
(cm)
Panicle length
(cm)
No. of tiller/m2
No. of spikes/m2
No. of grain
/panicle
2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013
A)Nitrogen levels(kg/fed)
40
60
80
93.84a
87.50b
84.43c
88.67a
87.67b
87.83b
20.17c
20.67b
20.84a
21.84a
20.83b
21.84a
466.67c
477.00b
596.67a
468.67c
522.00b
653.67a
429.67b
430.00c
588.67a
468.34c
516.50b
648.34a
141.67b
150.67a
148.84a
121.67
123.67
122.67
L.S.D. 0.05 1.20 0.60 0.15 0.18 8.30 9.30 11.45 20.11 2.90 ns
C)Planting methods
Manual transplanting
Mech trantplanting
89.56a
87.56b
93.00a
83.11b
21.22a
19.89b
22.12a
20.78b
519.67a
412.22b
633.78a
462.45b
513.89a
405.33b
627.22a
461.56b
147.45
146.34
135.56a
109.78b
L.S.D. 0.05 1.35 1.20 0.94 1.10 21.50 16.29 16.29 22.6 ns 14.15
Interactions
A× B * * * * * * * * * *
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Table 3: Effect of nitrogen fertilization and planting methods on rice yield and some of its components during 2012 and
2013 seasons
Treatments
No. of filled
Grains/panicle
1000- grain
weight (g)
Grain yield/fed
(tons)
Straw yield/fed
(tons)
Biological
yield/fed
(tons)
2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013
A)Nitrogen levels
40
60
80
132.34b
142.50a
141.00a
118.00
119.67
118.00
31.00b
32.00a
31.83a
31.67b
32.33a
32.50a
3.26b
3.25b
3.62a
4.02b
4.09b
5.20a
5.00b
4.39b
7.05a
6.60b
6.74b
11.19a
8.62b
7.42c
10.32a
10.62b
10.52b
16.39a
L.S.D. 0.05 5.10 ns 0.48 0.47 0.30 0.46 0.70 1.20 0.70 1.10
C)Planting methods
Manual transplanting
Mech trantplanting
138.11
139.11
130.45a
106.67b
29.78b
33.44a
30.33b
33.33a
3.92a
2.83b
5.24a
3.62b
7.12a
3.83b
10.25a
6.12b
10.82a
6.75b
15.27a
9.74b
L.S.D. 0.05 ns 6.20 0.56 0.70 0.66 0.72 1.05 1.30 1.20 1.25
Interactions
A× B * * * * * * * * * *
*, ** an Ns indicated PMean of each factor followed by acommon letter and not significant different at 5% level using L.S. D test.
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Table 4: Effect of nitrogen levels and planting methods on some technological characters of rice grains during 2012 and
2013 seasons
Treatments Hulling % Milling % Broken rice %
2012 2013 2012 2013 2012 2013
A)Nitrogen levels
40
60
80
80.72c
81.10b
82.17a
81.00c
82.40b
83.70a
70.80c
72.50b
73.84a
71.00c
73.20b
74.70a
12.68b
15.30a
12.75b
11.90b
13.80a
11.50b
L.S.D. 0.05 0.20 0.40 0.32 0.42 0.50 0.40
C)Planting methods
Manual transplanting
Mech trantplanting
81.97a
80.67b
82.40a
80.90b
73.11a
71.73b
73.90a
71.80b
16.45a
10.66b
15.70a
10.80b
L.S.D. 0.05 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.56 0.60 0.80
Interactions
A× B ns ns ns ns ns ns
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The interactions between nitrogen levels and planting methods were
significant for technological characters (hulling % milling% and broken rice %) in
both seasons (Table 4).
C- Economic study
Table (5) indicates the components of mechanical and manual
transplanting cost. The rice production cost per feddan in manual transplanting
increases by 47.5% comparing with the mechanical transplanting (Ebaid et al.,
2001).
Table 5: Economic study on mechanical and manual rice transplanting
methods
Variables
Cost of mechanical
transplanting
L E/feddan
Cost of manual
transplanting
L E/feddan
grains nursery preparation and
transplanting 800 1050
Permanent field preparation 120 120
Nitrogen fertilizer 594 594
Herbicides 60 60
Hand hoeing 250 250
Harvesting 340 1120
Total 2164 3194
