Abstract
Rice, the predominant food crop in India, is being grown traditionally with improper plant nutrient management mostly under the flooded situation. Recent advancement in research on crop science focuses on water-saving rice technologies for maximization in crop and water productivity under the backdrop of a shrinking water resource base for ensuring environmental and agricultural sustainability. Under this situation, an experiment was conducted in two consecutive years in a split-plot design keeping rice cultivation methodologies, viz., aerobic culture, System of Rice Intensification (SRI), and conventional flooded culture in main plots and integrated plant nutrient management (INM) treatments in sub-plots. The experiment was aimed at understanding the effects of different rice production systems and INM on nutrient content, uptake, and use efficiency. The change in soil quality parameters was also studied to understand the impact of crop establishment methods (CEM) and INM options. Significant reduction (p ≤ 0.05) in nutrient uptake and use efficiency was observed under aerobic culture compared to SRI and flooded method, although aerobic culture showed the highest physiological nitrogen use efficiency. Post-harvest available Fe status was significantly lower in aerobic rice (mean 10.39 ppm) compared to other crop establishment technologies; however, Zn status was higher in aerobic rice over the flooded situation. Although available potassium was not affected due to rice cultivation methods, available nitrogen and phosphorus status were influenced remarkably. Soil microbial quality was improved in aerobic rice in comparison to flooded rice. SRI proved to be the most efficient rice establishment method for enhancement in nutrient uptake, use efficiency, and enrichment of soil chemical and microbiological quality. Irrespective of crop culture, integrated plant nutrition in rice improved the nutrient uptake, use efficiency, and soil quality parameters. The study revealed that, under the alluvial soils of the Indo-Gangetic Plains of Eastern India, SRI can be considered as a water-saving rice production method. The method can also improve nutrient uptake, efficiency, and soil quality parameters if proper INM is adopted.
Highlights
The demand for rice, the most important staple food crop of the world, is expected to be 800 million tons by the end of 2025 [1,2]
There were no significant interactions between crop establishment methods (CEM) and nutrient management treatments for nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium content in the crops, but significant interaction effects were observed in the case of nutrient uptake by the crops
Total nitrogen content and uptake under aerobic culture was significantly lower as compared to conventional flooded culture and System of Rice Intensification
Summary
The demand for rice, the most important staple food crop of the world, is expected to be 800 million tons by the end of 2025 [1,2]. Nutrient management options in water-saving crop production methodologies are of utmost importance as nutrient availability, mobility in soil, and dynamic uptake by plants is greatly affected due to change in soil redox potential. Apart from green manuring, compost, and biofertilizer in nutrient management options, recent advancement in research of brown manuring has assumed the utmost importance in water-saving rice production technologies and conservation agriculture under the Indo-Gangetic Plain of India [9,10,11,12]. Microbial community dynamics in rice soils play an important role in nutrient recycling, soil fertility, soil quality and rice productivity, and composition and structure of microorganism in rice soils are diverse and complicated as crop production methodologies changes. Shifts in structure and composition of the microbial community are strong indicators of soil biological activity, soil quality, and crop productivity of terrestrial agroecosystems [13,14]
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