Abstract
Nutrient management is critical for rice farming because the crop is grown under diverse conditions, and in most cases, the existing nutrient management practices fail to achieve an attainable yield target. During recent years site specific nutrient management gained importance for a target yield with maximum nutrient use efficiency. Sufficient research work has not been carried out in this direction so far in the rice–rice–pulse (black gram) sequential cropping system under the red and lateritic belt of West Bengal, India. A multi-locational field experiment was conducted from July 2013 to June 2015 at three different locations, namely, Guskara (Burdwan district) and Benuriya (Birbhum district) villages in farmers’ fields and at the university farm of Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan, West Bengal, India. The performance of nutrients was tested by providing ample doses of N, P, K, S, and Zn compared to the omission of these nutrients. The growth parameters, such as crop biomass production, leaf area index, and number of tillers, and yield attributes and yield were influenced by nutrient management treatments. Application of 100% of N, P, K, S, and Zn resulted in its superiority to other nutrient management options studied, and a similar trend was also noted with the treatment in the expression of nutrient use efficiency (NUE) and nutrient response (NR). The available N, P, K, S, and Zn contents in soil increased steadily due to the increase in fertilizer application. The study concluded that optimization of NPK in the rice–rice–pulse cropping system on target yield along with need-based S and Zn application was beneficial for higher productivity.
Highlights
Introduction distributed under the terms andNutrient management is critical for profitable rice farming in Asia because fertilizers incur the second-highest input cost after labor
The mean data of multi-locational trial indicated that treatments T1 and T8 with ample doses of nutrients (N, P, K, S, and Zn) registered significantly higher biomass yield compared to the same varieties/hybrid receiving omission nutrient doses during different seasons
The data on tiller number (m−2 ) and leaf area index (LAI) of kharif and boro rice revealed that the nutrient management practices influenced the above growth parameters (Tables 5 and 6)
Summary
Introduction distributed under the terms andNutrient management is critical for profitable rice farming in Asia because fertilizers incur the second-highest input cost after labor. Sustainability 2021, 13, 3222 right source, rate, time, and place for enhancement of efficiency of nutrients applied by increasing yield. In India, rice is grown in the largest area in the world, with the second-largest production (112.9 Mt) next to China [3]. Rice occupies 43.7 Mha, and it is about one-fourth of the total cropped area, and more than 40 percent of food grain production [4]. At the current rate of population growth in India, the requirement for rice is estimated to be around 150 million tons within the fifty years. Food security in India (with a population of 1.6 billion by 2050, the country requires 450 Mt of food grain production) is a challenge [5], and the options available are very limited
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
