Effect of number of seedlings per hill on performance and yield of spring rice (Oryza sativa L.) in Rajapur, Bardiya, Nepal

It is assumed that the rice grain yields can be increased by using the optimum number of seedlings per hill during transplant. In order to know the effect of the number of seedlings hill-1 on the performance and yield of spring rice, a field experiment was conducted from February to June 2020 at Rajapur municipality, Bardiya, Nepal. The experiment was conducted in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) comprising five treatments viz., one, two, three, four, and five seedlings hill-1 with four replications. Hardinath-1 variety of rice was used at a spacing of 20cm*20cm, with an individual plot size of 3m*2m. Data for growth parameters, yield attributes, and yield were collected. All the data was entered and tabulated using MS-Excel while Analysis of variation and mean separation was done using R-Studio. The effect of number of seedlings hill-1 on yield and most of the yield attributing characters was found to be significant. Two seedlings hill-1 had the greatest plant height (94.78 cm), highest tiller per meter square (358.75), effective tiller per meter square (303.75), panicle length (24.27 cm), and the number of filled grains per panicle (120.43). Grain yield and straw yield (6.57 t/ha and 10.18 t/ha) were also highest at two seedlings per hill. Economic parameters like production cost, gross return, the net return, and B:C ratio varied significantly with the number of seedlings hill-1. The highest production cost (74.36 thousand NRs. ha-1) incurred at five seedlings hill-1 and gross return (177.39 thousand NRs. ha-1), net return (105.67 thousand NRs. ha-1), and B:C ratio (2.47) was highest at two seedlings hill-1.