Determining optimal nitrogen management to improve rice yield, quality and nitrogen use efficiency based on multi‐index decision analysis method

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Reasonable nitrogen (N) supply is critical for increasing rice yield while improving grain quality and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). However, the trade-off relationship between yield, quality and NUE of rice under N management has not been well understood enough. In the present study, a 2-year field experiment was conducted to identify optimal N fertilizer management practices that resulted in high-yield, high-quality and high-NUE by using the technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) with entropy weight (EW) method.RESULTS: All the parameters of rice yield, quality and efficiency were remarkably affected by fertilization treatments. Compared with farmer's fertilization practice (FFP), optimizing N fertilizer treatment (OPT) and substituting 20% of N fertilizer with pig manure based on OPT treatment (OPTM) increased grain yield (2.87-6.62%) by maintaining higher 1000-grain weight and filled grains rate. The agronomic NUE (AE) and N partial factor productivity (PFP) under OPT and OPTM treatment were also remarkably increased by 32.81-43.01% and 28.59-33.28% with respect to the value under FFP treatment, respectively. Meanwhile, OPT and OPTM significantly improved the milling quality of rice by increasing brown rice rate (0.71-1.17%) and head rice rate (1.34-2.31%). OPT and OPTM significantly improved appearance quality by decreasing chalkiness and eating quality by reducing amylose content in 2020. The TOPSIS with EW showed that rice comprehensive evaluation could be maintained at a high level under OPT and OPTM.CONCLUSION: OPT and OPTM were nutrient management modes of high-yield, high-quality and high-efficiency, and promising practice to improve rice comprehensive productivity. This strategy is also highly-consistent with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Effects of Irrigation and Fertilization Management on Yield and Quality of Rice and the Establishment of a Quality Evaluation System

“…Therefore, this study constructed comprehensive evaluation models of rice quality, and each treatment was ranked to obtain the optimal treatment. TOPSIS might be a suitable model for evaluating the comprehensive rice quality compared to GRD, ETM, and Fuzzy Borda; this result was consistent with Fei et al [21]. First, the TOPSIS of the average correlation coefficient was highest at 0.848 and the rank was consistent with Fuzzy Borda (Table 5).…”

“…Shi et al [20] comprehensively evaluated the rice quality (appearance, milling, cooking, and eating quality) of different nitrogen content management practices by the principal component analysis method and found that low nitrogen conditions were better for rice quality. Fei et al [21] used TOPSIS with the EW method to identify the optimal N fertilizer management practices leading to high yield, quality, and N use efficiency in rice. Zheng et al [22] used a TOPSIS assessment of the effects of humic acid on japonica rice production under different irrigation practices.…”