Comparative Analysis of Synthetic and Herbal Plant Growth Regulators on Rice Cultivation: Impact on Growth and Yield

Abstract

The increasing global population has also increased the demand on rice production for future generation to secure their food. Therefore, to secure their dietary needs rice production has a vital role. The productive potential of rice is mainly governed by many factors but deficiency of plant growth regulators (PGR) of plant develops a barrier to obtain higher yield. In this situation one of the important technologies is to increase the productivity of rice through the application of PGR on rice crop is helpful. The treatments are T1: Control, T2: Moringa olifera leaf extract (10 % w/v), T3: Acacia nilotica leaf extract (10 % w/v), T4: Prosopis juliflora leaf extract (10 % w/v), T5: ISOBIAN (1000 ml), T6: STRIKER (120 ml), and T7: GEBBREX (25-gram). All the growth regulators were foliar sprayed at the tillering stage of crop growth. The results revealed significant and non-significant variations for both of the varieties when subjected to different plant growth regulators. The PGRs STRIKER (naphthyl acetic acid @ 120ml ha^-1), GEBBREX (gibberellic acid @ 25 g ha^-1), and M. olifera leaf extract @ 10 % w/v proved to be effective in improving the physiological, agronomic and yield contributing parameters of coarse rice (KSK-133) as compared to the fine (Kissan Basmati). However, the maximum leaf area index at 50 days after transplantation (DAT) was recorded by the plots treated with GEBBREX. Similarly, the maximum count of tillers, CGR, NAR, 1000-GW, count of spikelet pan^-1, paddy yield (t ha­^-1 and minimum sterility percentage, was recorded by the plot treated with STRIKER (naphthyl acetic acid @ 120ml ha^-1) in KSK-133 as compared to Kissan Basmati. Furthermore, in term of natural PGRs, moringa leaf extract improved the sterility (%) and paddy yield as compared to control and other plant extracts.