Abstract

                                A study was conducted at TNAU, Coimbatore to assess the effect of ratooning on the yield. yield parameters and income of medium duration rice cultivars viz., IR20, CO43,ADT38 and Ponni under lock -lodge technology and conventional method of ratooning. Although there was not much difference in the regeneration of stubbles between lock-lodging and conventional ratooning, the braiding and lodging technique (lock-lodging) was found to be superior to the conventional method in favourably influencing all yield parameters except productive tiller number per hill. All the four medium duration rice varieties produced significantly higher grain yield (2443 to 3106 kg ha-1) under lock-lodge ratooning as against the yield recorded (1285 to 1704 kg ha-1) in conventional ratooning thus resulting in higher income from the new technology of rice ratooning. Co 43was consistently superior. The lock-lodge ratooning also proved its superiority by registering high C:B ratio (2.39) compared to the conventional ratoon practice (1.40) and the main crop (1.93).

Key words : Rice, Agro-climatic zones, Yield, income