Abstract
The trial was conducted at the Federal University of Agriculture; Abeokuta, Nigeria in 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 cropping season to evaluate the performance of lowland rice-ratooned rice-okra as influenced by fertilizer rates in sawah rice based system. Field was manually cleared and bunded but power tilled, puddled and leveled with inlet and outlet connections for irrigation and drainage. Fertilizer treatments evaluated on lowland rice were 90:45:45, 60:30:30, 45:22.5:22.5 and 30:15:15 NPK kg ha -1 whereas those of ratooned rice were 0, 30, 60 and 90 kg N ha -1 . Grain yield, chlorophyll content and plant height at maturity of the main lowland rice were similar. The ratooned rice crop treated with N-fertilizer had similar grain yield. The total grain yield of the two crops of rice ranged between 4.47 and 5.65 t ha -1 year -1 . The okra leaf chlorophyll content and okra pod weight obtained from the previous N-fertilizer plot of 60 and 90 kg N ha -1 were similar but significantly higher than those of 0 and 30 kg N ha -1 . Thus, fertilizer combination of 30:15:15 kg NPK ha -1 for lowland rice and 60 kg N ha -1 for ratooned rice in sawah rice based production system enhanced the productivity of succeeding okra plant.
Highlights
Nigeria has the resource and management potential to produce enough rice to meet local and as well as for exportation (FAOSTAT, 2008)
The trial was conducted at the Federal University of Agriculture; Abeokuta, Nigeria in 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 cropping season to evaluate the performance of lowland rice-ratooned rice-okra as influenced by fertilizer rates in sawah rice based system
Fertilizer combination of 30:15:15 kg NPK ha-1 for lowland rice and 60 kg N ha-1 for ratooned rice in sawah rice based production system enhanced the productivity of succeeding okra plant
Summary
Nigeria has the resource (abundant rainfed upland and inland valley) and management potential to produce enough rice to meet local and as well as for exportation (FAOSTAT, 2008). Improving the productivity of rice in the existing farming systems in the inland valleys is important for closing the gap between production and consumption. Land intensification via triple cropping, without irrigation, is a viable option for resource-poor farmers, who accounted for 75% rice production, to increase inland valley productivity. In south west Nigeria, most farmers practice double cropping (lowland and vegetable or maize) in the inland valley. The utility of inland valley was further improved by increasing the crop intensification from two to three crops per year (Adigbo et al, 2007; Adigbo et al, 2010; Adigbo, 2012) without supplemental irrigation but the sustainability and judicious fertilizer utilization were not efficient. There is the need to ascertain the productivity of the triple system in sawah based rice system which lay emphasis on the improvement of the rice environment
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