Management practices are a pre requisite for vigorous growth and development of rice crop. A field experiment was therefore conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of different management practices for growth and development of different rice cultivars. A two year experiment was conducted with two management practices i.e. seedling age (25, 35 and 45 days) and seedling densities (1, 3 and 5 seedlings hill^-1) tested on three rice cultivars (JP-5, Fakhr e Malakand and Swati-2014). The research cite Agriculture Research Institute (North) Swat. Various growth parameters like leaf area, leaf area index and plant height was observed during the research. The results of the experiment indicated that JP-5 variety produced taller plants compared to other varieties. Leaf area and leaf area index recorded at different intervals i.e. 30 days after transplantation (DAT), panicle initiation and maturity stages, were higher in Fakhr e Malakand. Among different seedling ages, taller plants were observed with transplanting 35 days old seedling. Similarly leaf area and leaf area index at panicle initiation and maturity stages were higher with transplanting either 25 or 35 days older seedling. Leaf area at 30 DAT was higher with 45 days older seedling, while leaf area at 30 DAT was not considerably affected. In case of different seedling densities, transplanting single seedling increased plant height and leaf area at all stages. Leaf area index at all stages was higher by transplanting 5 seedling hill^-1. It is concluded that cultivation of Fakhr e Malakand variety at seedling age of either 25 or 35 days at transplanting density of single seedling hill^-1 improved rice growth and development.

Key words- rice, management practices, seedling desnisty, seedling age, growth