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Sustaining productivity of lowland rice soils: issues and options related to N availability

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Abstract

The subsistence rice farming of the prechemical era efficiently sustained the N status of soils by maintaining a balance between N loss and N gain from biological N2 fixation. Intensive monocropping with excessive use of chemical N fertilizers has raised many concerns about N sustainability in lowland rice soils. Long-term fertilizer experiments in India and the Philippines recorded declining N availability to lowland rice over the years, regardless of the changes in total N content of the soils. While total N content was maintained in soils continuously flooded or saturated, there are indications showing its decline in soils subjected to drying and flooding cycles. Obviously, N supply in the lowlands is dependent not only on total soil N content but also on N transformations, root access, accumulation of reducing substances, and associated factors that govern N availability to plants. Recent research has identified several factors responsible for the declining N content in lowland soils: nitrate accumulation in soils during the dry phase followed by its loss on reflooding, small amounts of crop residues returned to the soils, little use of organic manures and symbiotic N2 fixing systems, and heavy loss of applied fertilizer N. Continuous flooding and intense puddling greatly reduce permeability, allow accumulation of reducing substances in the rhizosphere, and retard mineralization and N uptake in some soils. Further, shallow tillage practiced in intensively cropped lowlands often reduces plow layer thickness (to <15 cm) and nutrient availability from subsoil layers. This paper discusses these issues and suggests various options to help sustain the N fertility and productivity of lowland rice soils.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Directorate of Rice Research, Rajendranagar, Hyderabad, 500030, India

    D.K. Kundu

  2. lnternational Rice Research Institute, P.O. Box 933, Manila, Philippines

    J.K. Ladha

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  1. D.K. Kundu
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  2. J.K. Ladha
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Kundu, D., Ladha, J. Sustaining productivity of lowland rice soils: issues and options related to N availability. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems 53, 19–33 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009721912761

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