Impact Of Precision Nutrient Management On Growth And Productivity Of Boro Rice

Abstract

Rice is the principal food crop for over half of the world s population. High-yielding newlineand fertilizer-responsive rice varieties were introduced to ensure global food security newlineduring the Green Revolution. However, with the rapidly escalating population and newlineadoption of an intensive cropping system, it became evident that the regional newlinerecommended fertilizers were insufficient to meet the growing demands and optimize newlineinput requirements for enhancing rice productivity. Consequently, a growing interest newlinehas been in utilizing decision support tools based on 4R nutrient stewardship principles newlineto optimize fertilizer application. Moreover, the emergence of nano urea offers a newlinepromising avenue for fertilizer management. However, there remains a gap in research newlineevaluating the performance of these decision support tools compared to various newlinefertilizer levels, including nano urea. Considering the above facts, the current study was newlinecarried out on rice cv. Naveen during the boro season of 2021-22 and 2022-23 at the newlinePost Graduate Research Farm of M.S. Swaminathan School of Agriculture, Centurion newlineUniversity of Technology and Management, Odisha, India. The experiment was newlineconducted in sandy loam textured soil with a slightly acidic reaction, low in organic newlinecarbon and available nitrogen and medium in available phosphorous and potassium. The newlineexperiment was laid out in a Randomized Block Design with 11 newlinetreatments, viz., absolute control, 75% RDF, 100% RDF, 125% RDF, 75% RDF newlinefollowed by nano urea at 2ml L-1 during panicle initiation, 100% RDF followed by newlinenano urea at 2ml L-1 during panicle initiation, LCC 3-based nitrogen management, LCC newline4-based nitrogen management, SI-based nitrogen management, NE-based nutrient newlinerecommendation, RCM-based nutrient recommendation, and each treatment was newlinereplicated thrice. Along with these treatments, a separate reference plot was made with newlinean ample dose application of nitrogen (200% nitrogen) to calculate the sufficiency newlineindex. The results revealed that the growth parameters of rice, namely, plant height, newline