Smart Farming for Sustainable Rice Production:An Insight into Application,Challenge,and Future Prospect

Rice has a huge impact on socio-economic growth,and ensuring its sustainability and optimal utilization is vital.This review provides an insight into the role of smart farming in enhancing rice productivity.The applications of smart farming in rice production including yield estimation,smart irrigation systems,monitoring disease and growth,and predicting rice quality and classifications are highlighted.The challenges of smart farming in sustainable rice production to enhance the understanding of researchers,policymakers,and stakeholders are discussed.Numerous efforts have been exerted to combat the issues in rice production in order to promote rice sector development.The effective implementation of smart farming in rice production has been facilitated by various technical advancements,particularly the integration of the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence.The future prospects of smart farming in transforming existing rice production practices are also elucidated.Through the utilization of smart farming,the rice industry can attain sustainable and resilient production systems that could mitigate environmental impact and safeguard food security.Thus,the rice industry holds a bright future in transforming current rice production practices into a new outlook in rice smart farming development.

Research Progress of Rice-Fish Integrated Farming

Rice-fish integrated farming （RFIF） can change the agricultural production pattern from mono-farming model to the co-farming model, and the stereoscopic and integrated farming system established by RFIF can change the flat production to the stereoscopic production. Therefore, RFIF is the important development direction for agriculture to change pattern and adjust structure. In order to further promote development of the research and application of RFIF, the general development situation of RFIF in China was reviewed; the effects of RFIF on increasing farmer income and enhancing agricultural efficiency were clarified. The technologies matched with RFIF, such as rice paddy engineering technology, safe plant protection technology, security fertilization technology, fish disease prevention and control technology and water quality management technology, were summarized, and the supporting role of RFIF for agriculture was pointed out. In addition, the development prospect of RFIF was proposed, as well as the key research direction of RFIF.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Intermittently Flooded (Dambo) Rice under Different Tillage Practices in Chiota Smallholder Farming Area of Zimbabwe

Agriculture is one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases. Rice production has been identified as one of the major sources of greenhouse gases, especially methane. However, data on the contributions of rice towards greenhouse gas emissions in tropical Africa are limited. In Zimbabwe, as in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, there are very few studies that have explored greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural lands. This study reports the first dataset on greenhouse gas emissions from intermittently flooded rice paddies in Zimbabwe. The objective of this study was to quantify greenhouse gas emissions from dambo rice under different tillage treatments, which were conventional tillage, no tillage, tied ridges, tied fallows, and mulching. Average soil nitrous oxide emissions were 5.9, 0.2, 5.4, 5.2 and 7.8 μg·m-2·hr-1 for tied fallows, conventional tillage, tied ridges, mulching and no tillage respectively. Average methane emission was 0.35 mg·m-2·hr-1 and maximum as 1.62 mg·m-2·hr-1. Average methane emissions for the different tillage systems were 0.20, 0.18, 0.45, 0.52 and 0.38 mg·m-2·hr-1 for tied fallows, conventional tillage, tied ridges, mulching and no tillage respectively. Carbon dioxide emissions were 98.1, 56.0, 69.9, 94.8 and 95.5 mg·m-2·hr-1 for tied fallows, conventional tillage, tied ridges, mulching and no tillage respectively. The estimated emissions per 150 day cropping season were 1.4, 3.6 and 0.6 kg·ha-1 for methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide respectively. We concluded that intermittently saturated dambo rice Paddys are a potential source of greenhouse gases which is important to global greenhouse gas budgets, thus, they deserve more careful study.

Logistic Regression Analysis on Factors Affecting Adoption of Rice-Fish Farming in North Iran

We evaluated the factors influencing the adoption of rice-fish farming in the Tavalesh region near the Caspian Sea in northern Iran. We conducted a survey with open-ended questions. Data were collected from 184 respondents （61 adopters and 123 non-adopters） randomly sampled from selected villages and analyzed using logistic regression and multi- response analysis. Family size, number of contacts with an extension agent, participation in extension-education activities, membership in social institutions and the presence of farm workers were the most important socio-economic factors for the adoption of rice-fish farming system. In addition, economic problems were the most common issue reported by adopters. Other issues such as lack of access to appropriate fish food, losses of fish, lack of access to high quality fish fingerlings and dehydration and poor water quality were also important to a number of farmers.

Dynamic Emission of CH₄from a Rice-Duck Farming Ecosystem

Global climatic change induced by emissions of greenhouse gases from human activities is an issue of increasing in-ternational environmental concerns, and agricultural practices and managements are the important contributors for such emissions. This study investigated dynamic emission of methane (CH4) from a paddy field in a rice-duck farming ecosystem. Three different cultivation treatments, namely the organic fertilizer + duck (OF+D), chemical fertilizer + duck (CF + D), and chemical fertilizer (Control) treatments, were employed in this study. Experimental data showed that hourly variations of CH4 emission from the paddy field during the day were somewhat positively correlated (R2 = 0.7 for the OF + D treatment and R2 = 0.6 for the CF+D treatment) to the hourly changes in air temperatures in addi-tion to the influences of the duck activities. The rate of CH4 emission for the CF+D treatment was higher than that of the Control treatment at the tillering stage, whereas the opposite was true at the heading stage. In contrary, the rate of CH4 emission for the OF + D treatment was always higher than that of the Control treatment regardless the tillering or heading stage. Our study revealed that the rate of CH4 emission depended not only on air temperature but also on the rice growth stage. A 6.7% increase in CH4 emission and in global warming potential (GWP) was observed for the CF + D treatment as compared to the Control treatment. This study suggested that although the impacts of duckling on the emission of CH4 depended on the rice growth stage and air temperature regime, the introduction of ducks into the rice farming system in general mitigated the overall CH4 emission and thereby the GWP.

On the Rice Farming in the Shu Area During the Can Cong Period

The Bashu area was one of the most civilized agricultural areas in ancient China.Since the late Eastern Han Dynasty,it has been reputed as the“Land of Abundance”due to its abundant resources.Archaeological data show that the Shu area cultivated millet as early as the prehistoric period.The legend goes that Can Cong was the first ruler of the Shu area during the pre-Qin period,indicating that agricultural production at that time had made great progress compared with the prehistoric period.During this period,the agricultural pattern of the Shu area experienced profound changes,from dryland millet farming originating from the Western Sichuan Plateau to rice farming that is more suitable for Sichuan Basin,especially for the Chengdu Plain,where there are abundant rainfalls and high temperatures.Since then,rice farming has become a long-established farming tradition in the Shu area.The agricultural production tools and grain crop seeds unearthed from the Baodun site,where the archaeological remains of Can Cong Culture were discovered,show the prosperity of early agriculture in the Shu area.During the Baodun Culture period,the accelerated economic and social development in the Shu area promoted complicated and hierarchical changes in the social organization structure of settlements,which gradually evolved into early states.

Analysis on Technical Efficiency of Rice Farms and Its Influencing Factors in South-western of Niger

The present study focused on analyzing the technical efficiency office farms in southwest of Niger. The data from January to March 2015 survey of 148 ms in three districts of south-western of Niger were analyzed by using DEA-Tobit two-step method. In the f＇ust step, data envelopment analysis （DEA） was applied to estimate technical, pure technical and scale efficiency. In the second step, Tobit regression was used to identify factors affecting technical efficiency. The results showed that rice producers in southwest of Niger could reduce their inputs by 52% and still produce the same level of rice output. The Tobit regression showed that factors, such as farm size, experience in rice farming, membership of cooperative, main occupation and land ownership had a direct impact on technical efficiency.

Growth Characteristics and Yield of Late-Season Rice under No-tillage and Non-flooded Cultivation with Straw Mulching

A long-term field experiment （started at 2003） was conducted to determine the effects of different dce cultivation methods on growth characteristics and grain yield of late-season rice under double-rice cropping system in seasonal drought region of southeast China （Yujiang County, Jiangxi Province）. The rice cultivation methods included no-tillage and flooded rice cultivation （N-F）, no-tillage and non-flooded rice cultivation with straw mulching （N-SM）, and no-tillage and non-flooded rice cultivation without straw mulching （N-ZM）. There was no significant difference in rice grain yield between the N-SM and N-F treatments. However, the rice grain yields in the N-SM and N-F treatments were significantly higher than that in the N-ZM treatment. The late-season rice plants in the N-SM treatment had significantly higher numbers of effective panicles and total grains per hill compared with those in the N-ZM treatment. The above-ground dry matter of late-season rice was similar between the N-SM and N-F treatments. Compared with the N-F treatment, the N-ZM and N-SM treatments significantly decreased the leaf area at the heading stage. Moreover, the N-SM treatment could significantly increase total root length and root tip number at the grain-filling stage compared with the N-ZM treatment.

Effects of Non-flooded Cultivation with Straw Mulching on Rice Agronomic Traits and Water Use Efficiency

A field experiment was conducted to study water use efficiency and agronomic traits in rice cultivated in flooded soil and non-flooded soils with and without straw mulching. The total amount of water used by rice under flooded cultivation （FC） was 2.42 and 3.31 times as much as that by rice under the non-flooded cultivation with and without straw mulching, respectively. The average water seepage was 13 560 m^3/ha under the flooded cultivation, 4 750 m^3/ha under the non-flooded cultivation without straw mulching （ZM） and 4 680 m^3/ha under non-flooded cultivation with straw mulching （SM）. The evapotranspiration in the SM treatment was only 38.2% and 63.6% of the FC treatment and ZM treatment, respectively. Compared with the ZM treatment, straw mulching significantly increased leaf area per plant, main root length, gross root length and root dry weight per plant of rice. The highest grain yield under the SM treatment （6 747 kg/ha） was close to the rice cultivated in flooded soil （6 811.5 kg / ha）. However, the yield under the ZM treatment （4 716 kg/ha） was much lower than that under the FS treatment and SM treatment. The order of water use efficiency and irrigation water use efficiency were both as follows： SM〉 ZM〉 FC.

Empirical Study on the Benefit Increase of New Contract Farming 1+3+X Model

For a long time,the development model of traditional rice planting industry has been single,linear,and focusing on production first and then market.However,with the low price of rice,such problems as slow technological upgrading,meager profits,and unstable rice quality in the primary industry planting units and farmers have become increasingly prominent.The integration and development of the rural primary,secondary,and tertiary industries and industrial integration have the same root.They are integrated industrial development based on technological or model innovation,vertical and horizontal integration.Three agricultural leading companies(Nanjing Tianwei Agricultural Technology Co.,Ltd.,Nanjing CHYKINGYOUNG Biological Technology Co.,Ltd.,and Jiangsu Jingshan Eco-organic Agriculture Co.,Ltd.)established an industrialization complex,and used their respective technical,operational,and market advantages to integrate and form a rice contract farming 1+3+X model.This model effectively integrates scattered rice planting,rice processing,and rice sales in Nanjing City of Jiangsu Province,and Chuzhou City of Anhui Province,and unifies planting regulations and supply of production materials,safeguards the supply of green and high-quality rice and realizes high quality and high price.In addition,it integrates farmers into the entire industrial chain of contract farming,summons up the production enthusiasm of farmers and greatly increases their income from planting production.

Thailand Experience in Developing Wellness-driven Rice as the Key to Fight NCDs and Farmer Poverty

Prevalence of chronic noncommunicable diseases(NCDs)is rapidly increasing and has become a global problem in modern day.Over consumption of simple,processed carbohydrate foods is considered one of the main causes of NCD in young and elderly populations.Whole grain rice is an important source of a complex carbohydrate,dietary fiber,enriched with vitamins,minerals,and antioxidants.However,palatability of brown rice is the key success factor among white-rice-addicted communities.In the initial phase,we successfully breed rice strains with aromatic,soft-whole grain,white rice contains high grain-Fe/Zn density and intermediate glycemic index(GI).The most successful variety was uniquely soft-textured black purple rice named Riceberry,depicting rice enriched with blueberry nutritional characteristics.Product development for fiber-rich,high antioxidant has been extremely active from academia,real sectors,and SMEs.In total,39 patent applications(18 granted patents),12 international publications,and 18,700 Youtubes related to Riceberry.From 2017,Riceberry has become the most popular choice for product development surpassing Thai Hommali Rice.More than 200 food and non-food products were commercialized as dairy replacement,side dishes,meals,hot beverages,bakery,and breakfast cereals.In the second phase,we successfully breed low GI rice strains named Pink+4 equipped with farmers’preferred resistance to flash flooding,bacterial leaf blight,leaf blast,and devastating brown planthopper adapted to organic rice production.Innovative products combined of low GI rice flour with purple Riceberry have been the next trend for functional ingredients and foods.These healthy rice products have high potential globally as healthy foods,gluten-free,fiber-rich,complex carbohydrate,and nutrient-dense from sustainable organic farming.

Effects of Farm Yard Manure and Lime on Cadmium Uptake by Rice Grown in Two Contaminated Soils of Chittagong

A pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficiency of farm yard manure （FYM） and lime （calcium carbonate） on reducing the uptake of Cd by rice in two Cd contaminated soils of Chittagong. The effects of farm yard manure, lime and farm yard manure mixed with lime （FYM ＋ Lime） on rice （Oryza sativa L.） growth, Cd uptake by rice and 0.1 N HC1 extractable Cd in soil were investigated. Results showed that addition of lime and farm yard manure mixed with lime significantly decreased 0.1 N HCl extractable Cd in the city sewage soil. Application of farm yard manure significantly decreased Cd concentration in rice in the city sewage soil. Lime and farm yard manure mixed with lime significantly reduced Cd concentration in rice m both the contaminated soils. Lime was more efficient than farm yard manure in reducing the uptake of Cd by rice.

Farm size and fertilizer sustainable use: An empirical study in Jiangsu, China

Inefficient use of fertilizer has caused serious environmental problems and unsustainable development of agriculture in China.To meet the increasing food demand in the future without damaging the ecological environment,Chinese government officially launched the Action Plan for the Zero Growth of Fertilizer Use in 2015.At the same time,China released a series of policies aiming explicitly at expanding farm size and a great number of large scale farmers emerged recently.However,whether the expansion of farm size will be beneficial for the increase of fertilizer use efficiency still remains to be investigated.In this study,we comprehensively explored the relationship between fertilizer use efficiency and farm size.Based on the 4281 farm households’survey data collected by the National Development and Reform Commission(NDRC)of China from 2004 to 2016 in Jiangsu Province,China,this paper applies a stochastic frontier production function to estimate fertilizer use efficiency across farm size and uses a regression model to analyze the influence of farm size on fertilizer use efficiency.The results show that:(1)the average fertilizer use efficiency of whole samples was only 0.60,much lower than the average technical efficiency,indicating that on average half of the fertilizer utilized are excessive in China;and(2)the smallest farm size group get the highest fertilizer use efficiency score.We also provide some possible explanations for the inverse relationship between farm size and fertilizer use efficiency.

Conservation of Traditional Rice Varieties in a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS):Rice-Fish Co-Culture

The traditional rice-fish farming system is selected as a ＂globally important agricultural heritage system＂ （GIAHS） by the Food and Agriculture Organization （FAO）,United Nations Development Programme （UNDP）,and Global Environment Facility （GEF）,etc.In Zhejiang Province of China,where the pilot site for this GIAHS farming system is located,we compared the use of traditional rice varieties in rice-fish co-culture and rice monoculture.Further,we determined how traditional rice varieties were performed in this rice-fish system.Only 19% of the farmers who practiced rice monoculture planted traditional varieties while 52% of farmers who practiced rice-fish co-culture planted traditional varieties.Traditional varieties represented 13% of the total land cultivated under rice in the rice-fish system but only 2% in the rice monoculture system.In the rice-fish system,yield was lower for traditional rice varieties than hybrid varieties but application of fertilizers and pesticides was also lower.In a field experiment in the rice-fish system without pesticides,rice planthopper numbers and sheath blight incidence were lower from three traditional varieties than one hybrid variety;yields were 8 to 32% lower from the traditional varieties than the hybrid.Our results showed that traditional rice varieties can be preserved through conserving GIAHS rice-fish co-culture.Our study also indicated that traditional rice varieties can survive in the rice-fish system because these varieties are helpful to the whole system and beneficial to the farmers.

Do Land Characteristics Affect Farmers' Soil Fertility Management?

Soil fertility management （SFM） has important implications for sustaining agricultural development and food self-sufifciency. Better understanding the determinants of farmers’ SFM can be a great help to the adoption of effective SFM practices. Based on a dataset of 315 plots collected from a typical rice growing area of South China, this study applied statistical method and econometric models to examine the impacts of land characteristics on farmers’ SFM practices at plot scale. Main results showed that in general land characteristics affected SFM behaviors. Securer land tenure arrangements facilitated effective practices of SFM through more diversiifed and more soil-friendly cropping pattern choices. Plot size signiifcantly reduced the intensities of phosphorus and potassium fertilizer application. Given other factors, 1 ha increase in plot size might reduce 3.0 kg ha-1 P2O5 and 1.8 kg ha-1 K2O. Plots far from the homestead were paid less attention in terms of both chemical fertilizers and manure applications. Besides, plots with better quality were put more efforts on management by applying more nitrogen and manure, and by planting green manure crops. Signiifcant differences existed in SFM practices between the surveyed villages with different socio-economic conditions. The ifndings are expected to provide important references to the policy-making incentive for improving soil quality and crop productivity.

The Origin of Flooded Rice Cultivation

Rice cultivation has long been considered to have originated from seeding of annual types of wild rice somewhere in subtropics, tropics or in the Yangtze River basin. That idea, however, contains a fatally weak point, when we consider the tremendous difficulty for primitive human to seed any cereal crop in the warm and humid climate, where weed thrives all year round, instead of the accepted theory, we have to see a reality that vegetative propagation of edible plants is a dominant form of agriculture in such regions. The possibility is discussed that Job＇s tears and rice, two cereal crops unique to the region, might have been developed via vegetative propagation to obtain materials for medicine or herb tea in backyard gardens prior to cereal production. This idea is supported by the fact that rice in temperate regions is still perennial in its growth habit and that such backyard gardens with transplanted taro can still be seen from Yunnan Province of China to Laos. Thanks to detailed survey of wild rice throughout China for 1970-1980, it is now confirmed that a set of clones of wild rice exist in shallow swamps in Jiangxi Province, an area with severe winter cold. In early summer ancient farmers may have divided the sprouting buds and spread them by transplanting into flooded shallow marsh. Such way of propagation might have faster improved less productive rice through a better genetic potential for response to human interference than quick fixation in seed propagation, because vegetative parts are heterogeneous. Obviously, such a primitive manner of rice cultivation did include the essential parts of rice farming, i.e., nursery bed, transplanting in flooded field of shallow marsh like. Transfer from the primitive nursery to true nursery by seed may have later allowed rice cultivation to be extended to northern regions. In thus devised flooded cultivation there were a series of unique advantages, i.e.; continuous cropping of rice in a same plot, no soil erosion, slow decline of soil fertility, availability of minerals, and resulting in high yield per unit area, which have collectively attained the highly productive cereal cultivation in the warm and humid region. Rice cultivation in marsh is also favorable to raise fish culture, both of which constituted a nutritionally balanced base. Development of irrigation technology to construct flooded farms gave strong bases for stable rice-cultivating society, which in the end formulated the rise of ancient kingdoms of Yue and Wu in China in BC 6th -5th centuries. They were direct descendents of those people who had developed the unique rice cultivation from the era of Hemudu culture, which is dated back to 5 000 BC. Their movement to the south is considered to have established rice-cultivating communities in South China and Southeast Asia, while to the north it transferred the rice-based technology to ancient Korea and Japan and had established there a base for a civilized society.

An Optimal Classification Model for Rice Plant Disease Detection

Internet of Things(IoT)paves a new direction in the domain of smart farming and precision agriculture.Smart farming is an upgraded version of agriculture which is aimed at improving the cultivation practices and yield to a certain extent.In smart farming,IoT devices are linked among one another with new technologies to improve the agricultural practices.Smart farming makes use of IoT devices and contributes in effective decision making.Rice is the major food source in most of the countries.So,it becomes inevitable to detect rice plant diseases during early stages with the help of automated tools and IoT devices.The development and application of Deep Learning(DL)models in agriculture offers a way for early detection of rice diseases and increase the yield and profit.This study presents a new Convolutional Neural Network-based inception with ResNset v2 model and Optimal Weighted Extreme Learning Machine(CNNIR-OWELM)-based rice plant disease diagnosis and classification model in smart farming environment.The proposed CNNIR-OWELM method involves a set of IoT devices which capture the images of rice plants and transmit it to cloud server via internet.The CNNIROWELM method uses histogram segmentation technique to determine the affected regions in rice plant image.In addition,a DL-based inception with ResNet v2 model is engaged to extract the features.Besides,in OWELM,the Weighted Extreme Learning Machine(WELM),optimized by Flower Pollination Algorithm(FPA),is employed for classification purpose.The FPA is incorporated into WELM to determine the optimal parameters such as regularization coefficient C and kernelγ.The outcome of the presented model was validated against a benchmark image dataset and the results were compared with one another.The simulation results inferred that the presented model effectively diagnosed the disease with high sensitivity of 0.905,specificity of 0.961,and accuracy of 0.942.

Survey of Rice Cropping Systems in Kampong Chhnang Province,Cambodia

Although Cambodia might have achieved self-sufficiency and an exported surplus in rice production,its rice-based farming systems are widely associated with low productivity,low farmer income and rural poverty.The study is based on a questionnaire village survey in 14 communes containing 97 villages of Kampong Chhnang Province from March to June,2011.It analyzes the prevailing rice-based cropping systems and evaluates options for their improvement.Differences in cropping systems depend on the distance from the Tonle Sap water bodies.At distances greater than 10 km,transplanted wet-season rice cropping system with low productivity of about 1.6 t/hm 2 prevails.This deficiency can be primarily attributed to soils with high coarse sand fractions and low pH （〈 4.0）,use of ＇late＇ cultivars,and exclusive use of self-propagated seeds.To improve this cropping system,commercial ＇medium＇ cultivars help prevent crop failure by shortening the cultivation period by one month and complementation of wet-season rice with non-rice crops should be expanded.Areas adjacent （≤ 1 km） to the water bodies become inundated for up to seven months between July until January of each year.In this area,soils contain more fine sand,silt and clay,and their pH is higher （〉 4.0）.Farmers predominantly cultivate dry-season recession rice between January and April.Seventy-nine percent of the area is sown directly and harvested by combines.Adoption ratio of commercial rice seeds is 59% and yields average 3.2 t/hm 2.Introduction of the second dry-season rice between April and July may double annual yields in this rice cropping system.Besides upgrading other cultivation technologies,using seeds from commercial sources will improve yield and rice quality.Along with rice,farmers grow non-rice crops at different intensities ranging from single annual crops to intensive sequences at low yields.

中国大田无人农场关键技术研究与建设实践

智慧农业是现代农业的发展方向,无人农场是实现智慧农业的重要途径。为了探索和推广无人农场在现代农业中的应用,华南农业大学对大田无人农场的关键技术进行了深入研究,包括无人农场作业环境、作业对象和作业机械装备信息的数字化感知技术;土地整治、耕整、种植、播种、田间管理和收获方案的智能化决策技术;农机自动导航和农机精准作业的精准化作业技术;农作物生长、农机运维和农场经营管理的智慧化管理技术。2020年在广东增城创建全球首个无人农场,实现了五大功能,包括耕种管收生产环节全覆盖,机库田间转移作业全自动,自动避障异况停车保安全,作物生产过程实时全监控,智能决策精准作业全无人。取得了显著的经济、社会和生态效益,2021年广东增城水稻无人农场种植的优质丝苗米十九香产量达到9934.35 kg/hm^(2),比当地的平均产量高32%;2023年湖南益阳千山红镇再生稻无人农场两季产量达到17988 kg/hm^(2),说明了人不下田也能种地,也能种好地。截至2023年11月,在国内15个省启动了30个无人农场的建设,包括水稻、小麦、玉米和花生4种作物,实践结果证明了无人农场和智慧农业发展的巨大潜力,为解决“谁来种地”和“如何种地”提供了重要途径。

Competitiveness of Winter Rice Varieties against Weed under Dry Direct Seeded Conditions

Aerobic rice or dry direct seeded rice is highly vulnerable to weeds because of lack of “head start” over weeds and standing water layer to suppress weeds. The risks of chemical control and the huge cost involvement in mechanical control demand an eco-friendly and cost-effective integrated weed management. Weed competitive rice cultivar may be considered as a viable tool for integrated weed management. In these circumstances, an experiment was designed to evaluate weed competitiveness of some selected winter rice varieties under aerobic soil conditions. The study was conducted during dry season (February to June) 2016 at the Agronomy Field Laboratory and Weed Management Laboratory, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. Fourteen rice varieties namely, BRRI dhan28, BRRI dhan29, BRRI dhan47, BRRI dhan50, BRRI dhan55, BRRI dhan58, BRRI dhan59, BRRI dhan67, Binadhan-5, Binadhan-6, Binadhan-8, Binadhan-10, BRRI hybrid dhan3 and Agrodhan-14 were grown under weedy and weed-free conditions. Plots with no rice were also maintained to observe the natural growth of weed in absence of rice. The experiment was conducted with split-plot design with three replications. Weeding regime was allocated in main plot and rice variety was allocated in sub-plot. Results showed that rice varieties varied widely in their yield performances and weed competitiveness. Among rice varieties, BRRI dhan59 allowed the minimum weed growth (19.2 g m-2) while Binadhan-5 allowed the maximum weed growth (62.8 g m-2). Grain yield ranged from 1.85 t ha-1 (BRRI dhan55) to 3.92 t ha-1 (Binadhan-5) under weed-free condition and between 0.41 t ha-1 (BRRI dhan55) and 2.06 t ha-1 (BRRI dhan59) under weedy condition. Weed inflicted relative yield loss ranged from 43.4% to 82.1% among the varieties. BRRI dhan59 allowed the least yield penalty (43.4%) while Binadhan-5 had the maximum yield penalty (82.1%) due to weed competition. Although Binadhan-5 is the most productive variety (3.92 t ha-1) for aerobic culture but its weed inflicted relative yield loss is higher (82.1%) than many other varieties with low yield potential. On the other hand, BRRI dhan59 appeared as the most weed competitive variety (only 43.4% relative yield loss) with productivity of 3.84 t ha-1. Therefore, weed competitive variety should be considered as a vital tool while designing integrated weed management system for aerobic rice.