common regression accounted for 68.7% of the variability
in the data. There was a linear relationship between total
dry matter and paddy yield in both of the seasons. The
common regression accounted for 93.2% of the variance
in yield. In general, paddy yield was significantly but
differentially affected by the increasing rates of nitrogen
application, irrespective of planting method (Table 2). The
higher yield in these treatments may be due to increased
growth resulting in improvement in yield components. This
probably contributed to less sterility, less abortive kernels,
and higher grain weight and thus higher yield. Higher
paddy yield was seen in transplanted versus direct-seeded
rice. The transplanting method increased the paddy yield
up to 6.43% (2010) and 19.18% (2011) over direct-seeded
rice, especially at the higher rates of N applications. Yield
response to applied nitrogen was significant at the rate of
75 kg N ha–1 in both the planting methods. These results
differ from those of Dingkuhn et al. (1992), who reported
slightly higher yields in row-seeded rice compared to
transplanting. However, in another study, higher paddy
yield in transplanted rice than row-seeded at lower N
rates of application was reported (Furuya et al. 2005).
Transplanted rice enables the crop to make rapid early
growth, especially with adequate supply of N to intercept
more solar radiation and thus to produce and fill spikelets.
Similar results have also been previ