Evaluating system of rice intensification using a modified transplanter: A smart farming solution toward sustainability of paddy fields in Malaysia

Abstract

This paper presents the study reports on evaluating a new transplanting operation by taking into accounts the interactions between soil, plant, and machine in line with the System of Rice Intensification (SRI) practices. The objective was to modify planting claw (kuku-kambing) of a paddy transplanter in compliance with SRI guidelines to determine the best planting spacing (S), seed rate (G) and planting pattern that results in a maximum number of seedling, tillers per hill, and yield. Two separate experiments were carried out in two different paddy fields, one to determine the best planting spacing (S=4 levels: s 1 =0.16 m×0.3 m, s 2 = 0.18 m×0.3 m, s 3 =0.21 m×0.3 m, and s 4 =0.24 m×0.3 m) for a specific planting pattern (row mat or scattered planting pattern), and the other to determine the best combination of spacing with seed rate treatments (G=2 levels: g 1 =75 g/tray, and g 2 = 240 g/tray). Main SRI management practices such as soil characteristics of the sites, planting depth, missing hill, hill population, the number of seedling per hill, and yield components were evaluated. Results of two-way analysis of variance with three replications showed that spacing, planting pattern and seed rate affected the number of one-seedling in all experiment. It was also observed that the increase in spacing resulted in more tillers and more panicle per plant, however hill population and sterility ratio increased with the decrease in spacing. While the maximum number of panicles were resulted from scattered planting at s 4 =0.24 m×0.3 m spacing with the seed rate of g 1 =75 g/tray, the maximum number of one seedling were observed at s 4 =0.16 m×0.3 m. The highest and lowest yields were obtained from 75 g seeds per tray scattered and 70 g seeds per tray scattered treatment respectively. For all treatments, the result clearly indicates an increase in yield with an increase in spacing.

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