Organic Manures and Crop Residues as Fertilizer Substitutes: Impact on Nitrous Oxide Emission, Plant Growth and Grain Yield in Pre-Monsoon Rice Cropping System

Abstract

It has been previously argued that application of organic residues added in soils has a great impact on soil quality, grain productivity as well as greenhouse gas emissions. Substitution of chemical fertilizers has become a common practice in agricultural systems which consequently affect the greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural fields. To observe the effects of organic manures and crop residues amendments, five fertilizer treatments including conventional inorganic nitrogen fertilizer-NPK, cow manure, rice straw, poultry manure and sugarcane bagasse were applied in the field for two consecutive pre-monsoon rice seasons. Addition of rice straw, poultry manure and sugarcane bagasse decreased the cumulative N2O emissions by 14% and 31%, and by 1% and 7% and 5% and 3% in 2012 and 2013 respectively when compared with conventional fertilizer treatment (NPK) in both the seasons. Yield differences were not significant (p > 0.005) amongst the treatments, however, a slight increase was observed due to rice straw amendment over control. Soil organic carbon decreased by 11%-17% under the application of organic residues which might have contributed to lower N2O emissions from the plots. Results of carbon equivalent emission (CEE) and carbon efficiency ratio (CER) indicated that incorporation of rice straw during premonsoon rice season had the potential to reduce the N2O emissions and yield scaled emissions of rice production at lower level than the conventional farmers' practice of using chemical fertilizers (NPK).

Effect of fertilising with pig slurry and chicken manure on GHG emissions from Mediterranean paddies

“…There was an increase of N 2 O emissions from the organic fertiliser treatments (CM at Site 1) with respect to the control, (Table 5), but higher the larger the organic-C applied with the organic fertiliser ( Table 3). The results of the present study are in agreement with those of Das and Adhya (2014) and Baruah and Baruah (2015), who reported a similar trend when chicken manure was applied to paddy fields. For the other treatments, the low soil organic matter content (2.2% at Site 1 and 1.0% at Site 2) could have been a limiting factor for denitrification in the control and mineral treatments, and with the low PS dose at Site 2 due to its low organic matter content (Table 3).…”

Effect of Temperature Changes on the Bacterial and Fungal Succession Patterns during Composting of Some Organic Wastes in Greenhouse

“…The critical temperature which can limit composting is yet to be defined [33], however, Barua and Baruah [34] suggested that a temperature of 55°C -60°C should be maintained for up to three days for efficient composting.…”

Assessment of crop growth, soil properties and crop yield in an upland acidic soil with inorganic fertilizer blended with organic amendments in summer rice cropping seasons

“…As the addition of organic materials to soil channels the accumulation of extra carbon (Bharali et al 2017;Baruah and Baruah 2015;Kirkby et al 2013), SOC was found enhanced under T3, T5 and T6, i.e., under the inorganic fertilizer blended with organic materials. The increased SOC helps microbes to provide nutrients to plants by keeping carbon and nitrogen balanced in soil, otherwise microbes would decompose existing organic carbon of the soil (Fontaine et al 2004;Murphy et al 2015;Poeplau et al 2017).…”

“…Such fertilizers provide essential nutrients to soil, and also improve other soil properties, such as water-holding capacity, nutrient-holding capacity and microbial activity of soil. However, a huge volume of organic fertilizer is required for achieving potential of high yielding rice varieties, which will directly step up the cost of farming (Baruah and Baruah 2015; Baruah et al 2016). In addition, the decomposition of an organic matter under humid tropical condition is relatively hasty and its gathering is minimal in upland irrigated soils.…”