Abstract
Fertilizer-use efficiency is one of the most critical concerns in rice cultivation to reduce N losses, increase yields, and improve crop management. The effects of a new polymeric-coated controlled-release fertilizer (CRF) were compared to those of other slow-release and traditional fertilizers in a microscale experiment, which was carried out in cuvettes under partly controlled ambient conditions, and a large-scale field experiment. To evaluate the fertilizer’s efficiency, nitrogen and water-use efficiency were calculated using the measurement of different photosynthetic and crop yield parameters. Improved responses regarding some of the analyzed physiological and growth parameters were observed for those plants fertilized with the new CRF. In the microscale experiment, significantly increased yields (ca. 35%) were produced in the plants treated with CRF as compared to traditional fertilizer. These results were in accordance with ca. 24% significant increased levels of N in leaves of CRF-treated plants, besides increased P, Fe, Mn, and cytokinin contents. At the field scale, similar yields were obtained with the slow-release or traditional fertilizers and CRF at a 20% reduced N dose. The new controlled-release fertilizer is a urea-based fertilizer coated with lignosulfonates, which is cheaply produced from the waste of pulp and wood industries, containing humic acids as biostimulants. In conclusion, CRF is recommended to facilitate rice crop management and to reduce contamination, as it can be formulated with lower N doses and because it is ecological manufacturing.
Highlights
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), rice is the second most important cereal worldwide in terms of production, after maize, and the third in terms of cultivated area, after wheat and maize [1]
Nor was there any clear tendency by the significant differences parameters of dry mass (DW) (%) and leaf weight (g); no significance observed between controlled-release fertilizer (CRF) and CRFr1 to CRFr4 in respect to the rest of the treatments for the measured was observed for leaf RWC between the applied treatments
The A/E levels in the CRF treatment were significantly higher compared to DURAMON® and UREA, respectively. These results revealed that the CRF application improved significantly the rice intrinsic water-use efficiency at the photosynthetic level compared to the other treatments
Summary
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), rice is the second most important cereal worldwide in terms of production, after maize, and the third in terms of cultivated area, after wheat and maize [1]. Rice production in 2017/2018 increased by 1.6% with respect to the previous year, which left global production at a new maximum of 782 million tons [1]. Worldwide rice milled production reached 496 million tons in 2018/2019, with consumption increasing. That is why one of the main challenges of current agriculture is to search for new methods to increase the yield and quality of crops through sustainable agriculture [2,3]. Improving nutrient-use efficiency is one of the major objectives when establishing fertilization programs in cereals, because increased productivity and reduced contamination are achieved [4,5]. The majority of the world rice cultivation is performed in irrigated-lowland systems under anaerobic soil conditions, and NH3 volatilization and denitrification are the main ways of losing
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