Effect of Seed Priming on Agronomic Performance of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) Variety C26

Rice is a staple food for many people and a source of currency for many farmers. However, in West Africa, yields remain low. One of the reasons is the unsuitability of cultivation techniques, which results in heterogeneous germination of seedlings and low yields. The aim of this study was to evaluate the agronomic performance of rice variety C26 after seed priming. Rice grains were primed in various solutions. The resulting seeds were sown in a randomized block design with three replications in each cropping system (lowland and rainfed). Treatments were a control (no priming) and seed priming (NaCl; sucrose and Water). Sucrose and water priming were better in both growing systems. The NaCl system recorded the lowest agronomic parameter values. In the lowland, the emergence percentage was 95%. Emergence time at 50% (T50) varied between 6.6 and 11.10 days. The number of thalli and plant height increased from 7.22 to 9.50 thalli and from 30.28 to 50 cm respectively. Yield improved from 2362.17 kg/ha for the control to 3666.67 with sucrose priming and 4222.50 kg/ha with water priming, an increase of almost 50%. In rainfed conditions, emergence percentages ranged from 90 to 96%. T50 varied between 3.27 and 4.9 days. The number of thalli and plant height increased from 6.78 to 8.44 thalli and from 31 to 34 cm respectively. Yield increased by around 50%, from 1353.83 (control) to 2400.81 kg/ha with sucrose and 2844.62 kg/ha with water. The study shows that priming with water and sucrose significantly improves the agronomic performance of rice variety C26.