Effect of cultivation systems and zinc foliar application on yield, yield components and water consumption of rice

Rice is one of the major staple foods for more than half of the world population. The effect of three rice cultivation systems and foliar application of two zinc fertilizers was investigated on yield, yield components and water consumption of rice cv. ‘Sazandegi’ in Isfahan Agricultural Research Center, Isfahan, Iran, during 2013. This experiment was carried out in split plots using randomized complete block design with three replications. Three cultivation systems including system of rice intensification (SRI), conventional rice cultivation system (CRC) and improved rice cultivation system (IRC) were considered as the main factor and four zinc foliar applications including 150 and 300 mg.L-1 nano-ZnO and 3 and 6 g.L-1 SO4Zn together with foliar application with distilled water and no-foliar application (as first and second checks, respectively) were applied as the sub-factor. The results showed that highest grain yield (9451 kg.ha-1) obtained from SRI which was 10% and 13% higher than CRC and IRC, respectively. Foliar application with both zinc fertilizers significantly increased grain yield so that nano-zinc oxide (150 mg.L-1) and zinc sulfate (6 g.L-1) produced 5% and 5.7% more grain yield than the both checks, respectively. Minimum water consumption obtained from SRI which was 17.5% and 18.2% lower than CRC and IRC systems, respectively. On the basis of the results of this research, SRI system and foliar application of zinc sulfate (6 g.L-1) or nano-zinc oxide (150 mg.L-1) is recommended.