Effect of Sulphur and Zinc on Rice Performance and Nutrient Dynamics in Plants and Soil of Indo Gangetic Plains

Rice is the staple food of more than three billion people in the world, most of who live in Asia.Rice is important crop of Indo Gangetic Plains of Bihar, productivity of system is stagnate and somewhere going down, to ascertain the role of sulphur and zinc an experiment was conducted at main campus of ICAR Research Complex of Eastern Region Patna with four levels of both nutrients i.e. sulphur and zinc, total 16 treatments were tested in Randomized Block Design. Both the nutrients were applied to rice and their direct and residual response was ascertained to rice and lentil in sequence. Based on three years of experimentation, results revealed that rice plant height is significantly affected by sulphur and zinc. Tallest plant (101.7cm) was recorded at maturity with application 6kg Zn application Zn. With the advance of stage dry matter accumulation was increased, it was not like the LAI which was decreased after Panicle initiation stage. Highest LAI (4.29) at anthesis was produced in the plots treated with Zn at 6 kg/ha. Dry matter share of root was in general less than 15% across the levels of sulphur and zinc during all the phenological stages. Maximum rice yield (7.63 t/ha) was recorded with combined application of 30kg sulphur and 6kg zinc, whereas corresponding minimum rice yield (7.09 t/ha) was recorded with absolute control plots where no application of zinc and sulphur was done during entire experimentation period.Maximum (281.2 kg/ha) nitrogen uptake was recorded with 6kg zinc treatment. However highest uptake of P (91.1 kg/ha) and K (150.4 kg/ha) was recorded in the plot supplemented with no Zn and sulphur at 40 kg/ha, respectively. Soil parameters viz., pH, EC and organic carbon content did not influenced with the S and Zn. N, P, K, S and Znwere affected significantly due to sulphur and zinc nutrition.