Improved Upland Rice: Adaptability, Agronomic and Farmer Acceptability Assessment under Semi-Arid Conditions of South Western Uganda
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Date
2019
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Open Access Library Journal
Abstract
Enhancing the ability of plants to tolerate abiotic and biotic stresses is the
current strategy for increasing agricultural productivity worldwide. Improved
upland rice varieties characterized by early maturity, high disease resistance,
high drought tolerance, high yielding potential, high grain quality and marketability
are required by farmers to increase upland rice production to meet
the increasing food and income demands. Improved and local upland rice varieties
were evaluated across two seasons with and without fertilizer application.
Insufficient soil water availability, low soil fertility and the blast disease
were the major stresses that affected upland rice in the Rubirizi and Mitooma
experimental sites in the South Western Agro Ecological Zone of Uganda.
Integration of improved rice variety and soil fertility amendment with fertilizer
plus proper crop management cultural practices resulted in high agronomic
performance. Varieties NamChe 4, NamChe 5 and E22 showed superior
performance over the other varieties in the field, and had significantly
high probability (P ≤ 0.15) of being accepted by farmers. The early maturing
NERICA 10, late maturing NERICA 6, SUPERICA 1 and Local Var., had high
probabilities of being rejected because of low yielding, late maturity, drought
intolerance, small panicle size, poor grain filling and high susceptibility to
rice blast caused by Magnaporthe grisea . Therefore, improved varieties have
great potential of increasing rice production in SWAEZ-Uganda, if farmers
adopt the multi-technology integration approach.
Description
Keywords
Upland Rice, Adaptability, Agronomic Performance, Variety Preference and Acceptability
Citation
Kankwatsa, P., Muzira, R., Mutenyo, H. and Lamo, J. (2019) Improved Upland Rice: Adaptability, Agronomic and Farmer Acceptability Assessment under Semi-Arid Conditions of South Western Uganda. Open Access Library Journal, 6: e5660. https://doi.org/10.4236/oalib.1105660