Performance of Purple rice cultivar under different hill density

Purple rice has become a fascinating source of nutritional value among healthy cereal grains. A field experiment was conducted at Bangladesh Agricultural University during the Rabi season (February to May) of 2021 to evaluate the effect of number of seedlings/hill on growth, yield attributes and yield of Purple rice. Three seedling densities, viz. 1, 2 and 3 seedlings/hill, and three rice cultivars, viz. Purple rice, Pahari rice and a check BRRI dhan67 were experimental treatments and the experiment was laid out in a split-plot design with three replications. Results revealed that seedling number/hill had significant effects on the growth, yield and yield attributes of rice cultivars. The tallest plant (136.31 cm) was observed from the transplanting of 1 seedling/hill followed by 2 seedlings/hill (133.35 cm) in Pahari rice. The maximum values of the number of effective tillers (13.47; Purple rice), flag leaf length and width (41.36 and 1.24 cm; Pahari rice) were recorded from the treatment 2 seedlings/hill. The longest panicle (26.58 cm; Pahari rice) was observed in 1 seedling/hill, statistically, a similar value was found with 2 seedlings/hill (24.44 cm). Among rice cultivars, BRRI dhan67 produced the heaviest grains (1000-seed weight 23.96 g) with 2 seedlings/hill and maximum grain yield (6.35 t/ha) with 1 seedling/hill. Single seedling/hill was found to be the best management practice to get a higher yield per unit area for Purple rice and other rice cultivars also.