The combination of organic and inorganic fertilizers influence the weed growth, productivity and soil fertility of monsoon rice.

Dibakar Ghosh,Marián Brestič,Anupam Das,Sukamal Sarkar,Vaclav Hejnak,Debojyoti Moulick,Akbar Hossain,Pavla Vachova,Dibakar Roy,Milan Skalický,Mohamed M Hassan,Koushik Brahmachari,Mohan Lal Dotaniya

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0262586

Abstract

Synthetic fertilizer and herbicides encompass the largest share in nutrient and weed management on food grain crops that create serious environmental issues. Integrated nutrient and non-chemical weed management approaches may help to reduce the chemical load in the environment, maintaining higher weed control efficiency and yield. A field experiment was conducted for two consecutive monsoon seasons during 2015 and 2016 in farm fields to develop a profitable and sustainable rice production system through integrated nutrient and weed management practices. A varied combination of nutrients either alone or integrated with chemical and non-chemical weed management were tested on transplanted rice in a factorial randomized block design with three replications. The results showed that the integration of concentrated organic manures with chemical fertilizer effectively inhibited weed growth and nutrient removal. Integration of nutrient and weed management practices significantly enhanced 9% biomass growth, 10% yield of the rice crop along with 3-7% higher nutrient uptake. Brassicaceous seed meal (BSM) and neem cake also had some influence on weed suppression and economic return. Thus, the integrated nutrient and weed management practices in rice cultivation might be an effective way to achieve economic sustainability and efficient rice cultivation in eastern India. Shortages of farmyard manure and vermicompost could be supplemented by BSM and neem cake in the integrated module.

Highlights

IntroductionRice is consumed as a staple food by more than 60% of the current world population [1] and more than 50% of the Indian population [2]
Rice, wheat and maize are the mainstays of food security in the world
The weed management approaches viz., chemical and integrated significantly reduced the weed density and biomass compared to non-weeded

Summary

Introduction

Rice is consumed as a staple food by more than 60% of the current world population [1] and more than 50% of the Indian population [2]. Rice is cultivated on167.13 Mha of arable land with production and productivity of 782 Mt and 4.67 t ha-1, respectively [3]. In India, rice occupiesabout44.5 Mha of cultivated land that produces 172.58 Mt with an average productivity of 3.87 t ha-1 [3]. India is the home of 1.32 billion people, so to ensure food security, India has to increase rice production at the rate of 3.75 Mt per year until 2050 [4]. Indian farmers mainly rely on nitrogenous fertilizers to increase food grain production, making India the secondlargest nitrogen (N) consumer in the world [5]. Over the past 10 to 20 years, the data have shown a declining trend in rice productivity in many parts of India, despite higher nitrogenous fertilizer application [6] because of lower efficiency through greater runoff, leaching [7] and greenhouse gas emission [8] which leads to decreased partial factor productivity [9] and results in environmental pollution [10]

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