Effects of deep urea placement and variety on agromorphological performance of rice (Oryza sativa L.) in lowland rice production in Essyl (Enampore commune, Lower Casamance)

This study evaluates the effectiveness of localized application of super granular urea on lowland rice production compared to the farmer practice (FP). To this end, a two-factor Split Plot design was implemented: the practice factor with two modalities, Farmers' Practice (FP) and Deep Urea Placement (DUP), and the variety factor with two modalities, Sahel 108 and Tox 728-1. It was found that the most important height and plants collar diameter were obtained with the practice of deep placement of urea with respectively 68.10 cm and 4.02 cm. A significant effect of variety on growth parameters was also found. Indeed, the variety Tox 728-1 had the greatest height (63.63 cm) and the variety Sahel 108, the largest diameter at the collar (3.81 cm). Overall, the best performance in terms of growth is recorded with the practice of deep placement of urea regardless of variety. Heading was earlier with the variety Sahel 108 under deep urea placement. As for tillering and the number of panicles produced, they are statistically more important with the variety Sahel 108 under deep urea placement with 45±6.61 tillers/m² and 192±10.69 panicles/m² respectively. Considering the grain yield, it is more important with the DUP whatever the variety. It is 3055±148.39 kg/ha for the variety Sahel 108 and 2877.5±339.12 kg/ha for the variety Tox 728 -1 with this practice. These results indicate that, overall, DUP has a positive effect on the agromorphological parameters of rice in Lower Casamance.