Bio-efficacy of Polymer Coated Urea on Growth and Yield of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) under Lowland Cultivation

Aim: To evaluate the effect of polymer coated urea on plant growth and yield of paddy under lowland cultivation.

Study and Design: The experiment consisting five treatments was carried out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with four replications.

Place and Duration of study: A pot experiment was conducted in kharif season of 2014-15 under open field condition at Agriculture Research Farm of Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi.

Methodology: The research trail was consisted five sources of nitrogen [i.e. Urea Supergranule, polymer coated urea (single layer), polymer coated urea (double layer), Neem coated urea and sulfur coated urea]. Ureas prills (2g) coated with different materials were deep placed at a week after transplanting at the center of four hills. Data regarding all the parameters were taken separately from each pot and analyzed following suitable statistical tools.

Results: The result showed that plant height, tiller number, grain per panicle and grain yield improved by 8.51%, 24.33%, 16.07% and 23.37% respectively, with application of polymer coated urea over uncoated urea at harvesting. The grain and straw yield were found to be highest (24.17 and 31.08 q ha-1 respectively) under polymer coated urea (double layer) as compared to urea supergranule with 17.52 and 24.02 q ha-1.

Conclusion: It was observed that polymer coated urea significantly improved plant growth and yield (both grain and straw) because of its low solubility and synchronized release of nitrogen characteristics. It proved that polymer coated urea is the best fertilizer for paddy cultivation particularly under lowland condition.