COMPARATIVE STUDY OF TWO RICE CULTIVARS (Oryza glaberrima and O. sativa) UNDER DIFFERENT CULTURAL CONDITIONS

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate and compare the growth performance of two rice species viz Oryza glaberrima and O. sativa under different hydrological conditions. For this, 21 accessions of O. glaberrima and 69 of O. sativa core collection were cultivated in different water regimes ranging from drought-prone upland to lowland using a toposequence (rainfed upland, rainfed hydromorphic and irrigated lowland) at the experimental field of Africa Rice, Ouedeme, Bénin, during 2010 and 2011 wet seasons. Results of study revealed higher Morpho-physiological and phenological variability among the core collections of O. sativa and O. glaberrima genotypes. Further, among various studied attributes, O. glaberrima showed higher number of tillers at maturity as compared to O. sativa in the second season. Moreover, O. glaberrima also showed long crop duration as compared to O. sativa. Leaf area and specific leaf area discriminated O. sativa from O. glaberrima in all ecologies. Further, O. glaberrima also indicated higher leaf area on every sampling date. In case of plant height, non-significant difference was not reported for both species. Variation in results between the two seasons could be justified by the difference between average rainfalls.