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Changes in Lowland Paddy Soil Fertility in the Philippines After 50 Years of the Green Revolution

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Changes in Paddy Soil Fertility in Tropical Asia under Green Revolution

Abstract

The Green Revolution (GR) contributed greatly to the rice yield increase in the Philippines from 1.3 t ha−1 in 1966 to 4.0 t ha−1 in 2018. Yet the changes in paddy soil fertility over the last 50 years remain elusive. We collected 37 soil samples from the plow layers of paddy fields in Luzon, Leyte, Panay, and Mindanao in the Philippines in 2016 and 2017 (named as 2010s). These sampling sites are located at the same or close to the original sampling sites in 1969 (named as 1960s) as reported in Kawaguchi and Kyuma (Paddy soils in tropical Asia. their material nature and fertility, University Press of Hawaii, Honolulu 1977). Soil properties were compared between the soils in 1960s and those in 2010s. Paddy soils in the Philippines had relatively high exchangeable calcium (Ca) and magnesium (Mg) content, cation exchange capacity (CEC), available silicon (Si) content, and total carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) content, reflecting their indigenous pedological background. We found that the 2010s soils had a lower available N content, particularly in wetter regions, despite the high input of N fertilizers, whereas the available phosphorus (P) showed a six-fold increase from the 1960s to the 2010s. The total potassium (K) content had significantly decreased during this period, possibly due to the mining effect of intensive farming with K-deficient fertilization. The 2010s soils contained a greater silt content and higher proportion of smectite in the clay fraction, which may have been transported from upstream via irrigation water. The increase in smectite corresponded with a significant increase in the cation exchange capacity, despite the organic C and clay contents tending to decrease, and these increases in smectite and soil pH may have contributed to the increase in the available fraction of Si that had not been applied as fertilizers. These findings demonstrate that paddy soil fertility in the Philippines changed in many ways over this 50-year period, largely owing to the direct impact of GR implementation in paddy fields but also potentially due to offsite effects from upland fields. The environmental impact of the nutrient loss and soil organic matter degradation behind the fertility improvement should be assessed holistically for the sustainable development of rice paddy ecosystems.

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Acknowledgements

This chapter is mainly derived from Nakao et al. (2021) published in Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, 67, 446-459, doi: 10.1080.00380768.2021.1947118. The authors would like to express their deep gratitude to Dr. Nicola Timbas and Dr. Simplicio Medina for their kind help in our research collaboration. This research was partly funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science through a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (overseas academic) (No. 15H05247).

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  1. Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto Prefectural University, Kyoto, Japan

    Atsushi Nakao & Junta Yanai

  2. Experimental Farm, Kindai University, Yuasa (Arida), Japan

    Shin Abe

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  1. Atsushi Nakao
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  2. Junta Yanai
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Correspondence to Atsushi Nakao .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto Prefectural University, Kyoto, Japan

    Junta Yanai

  2. Faculty of Agriculture and Marine Sciences, Kōchi University, Nankoku, Japan

    Sota Tanaka

  3. Experimental Farm, Kindai University, Yuasa (Arida), Japan

    Shin Abe

  4. Graduate School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Kyoto Prefectural University, Kyoto, Japan

    Atsushi Nakao

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Nakao, A., Yanai, J., Abe, S. (2022). Changes in Lowland Paddy Soil Fertility in the Philippines After 50 Years of the Green Revolution. In: Yanai, J., Tanaka, S., Abe, S., Nakao, A. (eds) Changes in Paddy Soil Fertility in Tropical Asia under Green Revolution. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-5425-1_4

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