Economic analysis of different rice cultivars against major biotic stresses

Abstract

The on-farm trials during kharif 2017 and 2018 were conducted to study the prevalence of major biotic stresses and benefit-cost ratio on popularly grown rice cultivars. The results revealed that non-significant variations were noticed between cultivars on the incidence of leaf folder damage, BPH & WBPH populations and severity of sheath blight disease in the stipulated period. However, the variation observed in these biotic stresses is due to the maturity period of cultivars. The long-duration cultivars result in more shelter from insects and disease due to the dense crop canopy and take more days to maturity as compared to medium-short duration cultivars. It was also found that cultivating long-duration cultivars viz; Pusa 44 and Pili Pusa gave the highest yield with a low benefit-cost ratio as compared to medium-short duration cultivars like PR 121, PR 122, and PR 126. Our study concluded that the cultivation of medium-short duration cultivars is more profitable due to the low cost of production, less use of chemical inputs and lesser requirement of irrigation water.