Effects of Sowing Date, Seeding Rate and Varieties on Yield of Rice: Preliminary Study on Rice in the Fogera Plain, Ethiopia.

The experimental treatments were laid down in a split plot design with three replications to determine the effects of sowing date, seeding rate & varieties on the yield & yield components of rice. Three sowing date treatments were assigned to main plots; while factorial combinations of three seeding rates & three rice varieties (X-Jigna, Gumara and Superica- 1) were randomly allocated to subplots. Variety X- Jigna produced significantly higher number of panicles/0.5 m row than Gumara & Superica-1, whereas Superica-1 & X-Jigna produce comparable number of spiklets per panicle which was significantly greater than that of Gumara. The third sowing date gave the highest harvest index than the other two sowing dates. Compared to the other varieties X-Jigna exhibited the highest harvest index. Similarly 75kg/ha seeding rate gave the highest harvest index compared with the remaining two seeding rates. Based upon the present study findings it may be tentatively recommended that variety Supereica-1 should be planted 10 days after the farmers planting time. On the 3rd sowing date, both X-Jigna & Gumara resulted in higher grain yields at a seeding rate of 75kg/ha.