Vol. 9, Special Issue 8, Part H (2025)

Rice is the staple food of the majority (more than 50%) of the world’s population and is being consumed over 90% production in Asian countries and became staple food of more than 65% of India’s population. Black rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a special type of rice cultivar with a dark purple grain, the aleurone layer is black or deep purple in colour due to pigment anthocyanin. Black rice is getting popular for its nutritive value and antioxidant properties and high level of nutrients like protein, minerals like Ca, P, Fe and Zn with high dietary fibre. Demand of black rice, the functional food, is growing day by day. Back rice cultivation is similar to that of traditional rice but especially, it requires following some specific farming practices. Black rice is earlier in heading, thus the transplanting should be adjusted. Black rice is cultivated in the states of Orissa, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Manipur and other North-eastern states. Planting date is very crucial factor in rice yield, so to evaluate the optimum planting time, present experiment has been set to study adaptability, growth and yield of black rice cultivars under varying dates of transplanting. The experiment was carried out in the instructional farm of Uttar Banga Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Pundibari, Cooch Behar during kharif 2019-20. The experiment was carried out in split plot design having four main plot treatments of transplanting date viz. 2^nd July, 17^th July, 1^st August, 16^th August and three black rice cultivars as sub plot treatment viz. Chakhao Poiriton, Malaysian Black Rice, G 60. The highest grain weight (3.34 t ha^-1) was found with the crop transplanted on 17^th July followed by 2^nd July and 1^st August with 3.23 t ha^-1 and 3.22 t ha^-1 respectively, which are statistically at par with each other. The cultivars showed no difference in yield on dates of transplanting with highest grain of 3.18 t ha^-1 recorded with Malaysian Black Rice followed by 3.14 t ha^-1 and 3.08 t ha^-1 respectively with G 60 and Chakhao Poiriton. The result of this experiment establishes that the normal transplanting window of the black rice cultivars during is 2^nd fortnight of July.