NITROGEN EFFICIENCY ON UPLAND RICE GENOTYPES

Abstract

Rice plants present a high demand for nutrients, being nitrogen the main limiting factor to their yield. The objective of this study was to verify the existence of differences among local and improved rice genotypes, concerning the nitrogen efficiency use, in a Brazilian Savannah soil, in Gurupi, Tocantins State, Brazil. Seven rice cultivars (BRS-Caiapó, BRS-Bonança, Epagri-114, BRS-Sertaneja, BRS-Primavera, BRSMG-Conai, and BRSMG-Curinga) were cultivated in two distinct environments. In order to simulate environments with high and low nitrogen contents, 20 kg ha^-1 and 120 kg ha^-1 of N were respectively applied. The experiments were carried out in a completely randomized blocks design, with four replications. The features evaluated were grain yield, days for flowering and ripening, lodging, plants height, and 100 grains weight. It was possible to conclude that the environment with high nitrogen content was responsible for the highest plants height, the environment with low nitrogen content delayed the cultivars flowering stage, and the BRSMG-Curinga cultivar was the only one that reacted to the fertilization increase, with a significant increase in grains yield.