Abstract
Throughout upland rice ecologies, low soil fertility and moisture stress are the major factors limiting productivity and profitability. We conducted field experiments using 36 combinations of NPK fertilizer on a popular upland rice variety in East Africa (NERICA 4) to establish upland rice crop nutrient requirements under supplemental irrigation (SI) and rainfed (RF) conditions. NPK was applied in a factorial design by partially employing nutrient omission technique. The overall effect of NPK on the grain yield was more striking in SI, with 55% yield increase as compared to 40% in RF. Application of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) fertilizers singly, in SI, increased the grain yield of NERICA 4 by 43%, 5% and 0.4%, respectively. In contrast, N increased grain yield by 20% in RF, and P and K had no significant effect on grain yield. Application of 120 kg N ha−1 alone, without P and K, however, led to a 44% decrease in agronomic efficiency (AE) in RF and a marginal increase in SI. Although maximum biomass was obtained with 120:40:40 kg NPK ha−1 in both SI and RF, the grain yield was not significantly different from 80:40:40 kg NPK ha−1. Besides, the harvest index (HI) dropped by eight units in RF and increased only marginally in SI at 120:40:40 kg NPK ha−1. The net profit, due to NPK, was 33% higher in SI than RF at 80:40:40 kg NPK ha−1. Our data show that N is the most limiting nutrient, and applying N beyond 80 kg N ha−1 at the current P and K recommendation of 40 kg ha−1 for upland rice is less profitable.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the Rockefeller Foundation for the financial support of this research. We extend our sincere thanks to Africa Rice for providing the germplasm and other capacity building efforts.
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Onaga, G., Kikafunda, J., Bigirwa, G., Asea, G., Mwamburi, L.A. (2020). Rice Response to Nitrogen and Supplemental Irrigation Under Low Phosphorus and Potassium in Upland Production Systems in East Africa. In: Sutton, M.A., et al. Just Enough Nitrogen. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58065-0_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58065-0_15
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