author(s)
G Thiyagarajan, Balaji Kannan, M Manikandan and M Nagarajan

abstract
Rice is the most stable food crop in the world and in Asia more than two billion people are getting 60-70% of their food energy from rice and its derived products. Tamil Nadu is one of the biggest producer’s of rice. The Cauvery Delta Zone (CDZ) of the composite Thanjavur district is known as the Rice Bowl of South India. In Cauvery Delta Zone, rice is grown in three seasons viz., Kuruvai (June- September), Samba (August – January) and Thaladi (October-February). Rice is the principal crop of CDZ. Owing to increasing water scarcity, it is highly essential to find out alternate methods of rice cultivation which require less water. One of the approaches that lead to a considerable amount of water saving in rice production is drip irrigation. But major problem in cultivating rice under aerobic condition is root knot nematode (RKN). To study the efficiency of chemigation for RKN, research experiment was conducted at Soil and Water Management Research Institute, Thanjavur. Two lateral spacings viz., 80 cm and 110 cm with four chemigation treatments to control nematode namely soil application of carbofuran (33 kgha-1), chemigation with carbofuran (33 kgha-1) and cartap hydrochloride (10 kgha-1) and control were tested in two rice varieties viz., CORH 3 and ADT 45 during Kharif 2013 and Summer 2014. Chemigation with equal splits was given on 10 and 30 DAS. Chemigation with carbofuran @ 33kg ha-1 was found to be effective in managing the rice RKN. CORH 3 hybrid rice along with the chemigation of carbofuran @ 33kg ha-1 in equal splits on 10 and 30 DAS through drip irrigation was found to be the best suitable combination in the CDZ.