EFFECT OF IRRIGATION MANAGEMENT AND SEEDLING AGE ON THE PRODUCTIVITY AND QUALITY OF TWO RICE VARIETIES USING SYSTEM OF RICE INTENSIFICATION (SRI).

A two -year field experiment was conducted at the Experimental Farm of Agricultural Research Station and lab. of seed technology Dept. Sakha, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt, during 2013 and 2014 seasons. A split split plot design with
three replications was conducted to study the effect of irrigation system, seedling age and variety on rice yield and its components, grain quality and viability. The two irrigation treatments i.e. continues flooding and continues
saturation were allocated to the main plots, three ages of seedlings i.e. 15, 20 and 25 days old were assigned to the sub-plots and two rice varieties i.e., Sakha105 as inbred and Egyptian hybrid1 rice were distributed in sub-sub
plots. The obtained results could be summarized as follows: The grain yield, straw yield, hectolitre weight, protein content, hulling % and milling % responded positively to flooding treatment. Transplanting of younger seedlings provided more effective tillers m
 -1, filled grains panicle-1,thousand grain weight, hectolitre weight, straw yield, germination, protein content and amylose content, hulling %, milling % and grain yield than those of the older one. Egyptian Hybrid 1 rice produced the highest values of number of productive tillers hill, number of primary branches/panicle, grain yield, straw
yield, radical length, E.C and 1000-grain weight. The interactions among irrigation, age of seedling and rice variety had a significant effect on number of productive tillers/m2, number of primary branches/panicle, filled grains, panicle
weight, straw yield, germination %, E.C and 1000-grain weight. The present study indicated that sowing of Egyptian Hybrid 1 rice variety with 15 days seedlings old under flooding treatment can improve yield and its components as well as grain quality of economic values.