Physiological characters of the local and improved cultivars of rice under organic culture

Abstract

Background and Objective: Local and improved varieties of rice have different physiological characteristics under organic cultivation. The purpose of this study was to determine the physiological characteristics of local and improved cultivars grown under organic cultivation of rice. Methodology: The design used was completely randomized factorial with 2 factors and 3 replications. The first factor was the kind of cultivation, i.e. organic cultivation and conventional cultivation and the second factor was the kind of cultivars of rice comprising: 5 different cultivars which consisted of Mentikwangi, Pandanwangi and Cianjur as local cultivars and IR64 and Cisedane as improved cultivars. The research was conducted at the greenhouse of the experiment station of Faculty of Agriculture, Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta Indonesia situated at 113 m above sea level. Data were analyzed by one way analysis of variance of CRD and SAS. Results: The results indicated that physical and chemical properties of soil under organic and conventional system were good, except total nitrogen (N) was low. N weight of leaf of cv Cianjur, the greenness of leaves and stomatal conductivity of rice organically grown were lower than those of conventional cultivation, however the CO2 of leaf cells and the rate of photosynthesis were not different. There were no differences between the greenness of leaves, the CO2 of leaf cells, the rate of photosynthesis of the local varieties compared to those of in the improved varieties. The stomatal conductivity of cv. Mentikwangi a local variety was greater than other varieties. Conclusion: The results of study showed that there is a change of physiological characters of rice varieties when cultivated organically. Not much difference is observed in physiological characters between local and improved varieties.