Abstract: Rice is considered as a staple food in Assam and occupies about two third of total cropped area in the state. The agro climatic condition of the state is very favourable for rice cultivation and hence most of the farmers earn their livelihood through production of rice on a sustainable basis. Most of the rice cultivation in the state is done by manual transplanting method which involves a number of labourers. In order to overcome the setbacks faced due to shortage of labourers in the main cropping season, the present study was accomplished using a walk behind four row mechanical transplanter for transplanting. A comparative field study was conducted to evaluate the yield attributing characters and yield of two high yielding varieties namely Binadhan 11 and Tripura Chikan at Morigaon district of Assam. Different growth parameters and yield attributing characters like plant height, tillers per hill, panicles per meter square, total numbers of grains per panicle, filled grains per panicle, thousand grain weight, biomass yield, grain yield were recorded. From the study it was found that average plant height of Bina Dhan 11 was 112.4 cm and that of Tripura Chikan was 99.2 cm. Also, average number of tillers per hill was found to be 12 and 9 respectively for Binadhan 11 and Tripura Chikan. Average number of panicles per meter square was also recorded and it was found to be 303 and 268 for Binadhan 11 and Tripura Chikan respectively. Average of total grains per panicle for Binadhan 11 was recorded to be 137 and that of Tripura Chikan was recorded to be 331. Average of filled grains per panicle was found to be 124 and 287 for Binadhan 11 and Tripura Chikan respectively. Average of biomass yield for Binadhan 11 was found to be 12.48 kg and that of Tripura Chikan was found to be 9.94 kg. After attaining a suitable moisture level, average of total grain yield of 2.80 kg was recorded in Binadhan 11 and 2.39 kg was recorded in Tripura Chikan.

Keywords: Rice, mechanical transplanter, yield, yield attributing characters.

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2020.7815