Site-specific Nutrient Management for Enhancing Crop Productivity

Abstract

Nutrient management plays a crucial role in achieving self-sufficiency in food grain production. High price index of chemical fertilizers coupled with mount pollution problem gave rise to interest in precision nutrient management tools. Site specific nutrient management (SSNM) increases and maintains the yield by optimizing the balance between supply and demand of nutrients. Nutrient application as per SSNM concept resulted in significantly higher grain yields of maize, rice, wheat and other important crop over recommended dose of fertilizers (RDF) and farmer’s fertilizers practices. The SSNM is real time feeding of crops with nutrients while recognizing the inherent spatial variability which enhances crop productivity, nutrient use efficiency (NUE) and avoids nutrient wastage. For effective SSNM, utilization of different sensing devices of soil and plant nutrient status, decision support systems, GIS, remote sensing, simulation models and nenoparticles play an important role. Traditional techniques like balanced fertilization, use of nitrification inhibitors and slow-release nitrogenous fertilizers (SRNF) are also used to attain higher productivity and reduce environmental pollution. This paper deals with the SSNM approaches which are able to enhance crop productivity, NUE and sustainability.

Productivity and Profitability of Kharif Rice Are Influenced by Crop Establishment Methods and Nitrogen Management in the Lateritic Belt of the Subtropical Region

“…Earlier, several findings confirmed that rice grain and straw yield were influenced by the crop establishment method [67] and nitrogen management [68]. In our present study, the difference in grain yield of rice with DSR method between two years was probably due to climatic variation, i.e., higher rainfall in 2017 immediately after seeding and during the crop establishment period.…”

Impact of Tillage and Nitrogen Management Practices on Growth and Yield of Rabi Maize (Zea mays L.)

“…The treatments involved in enhanced nitrogen produced more grain in a single row may be due to the application of fertilizer fulfills the nutrient demand at critical growth stage attributed to better growth and partitioning of photosynthates. This line was earlier confirmed by Biradar et al [11] and Bana et al [12]. The interaction effect due to tillage practices and nitrogen levels on number of kernels row -1 was found to be nonsignificant (Table 3).…”

​On-farm Evaluation of Leaf Colour Chart and Chlorophyll Meter for Need-based Nitrogen Management in Kharif Maize (Zea mays L.)

“…Improvement in leaf chlorophyll content due to application of 122 kg N ha -1 at LCC threshold 5 and SPAD 50 over fixed time application of 125 kg N ha -1 supports improved photosynthetic rate leading to higher growth and biomass production. The enhanced growth with LCC based nitrogen application was also reported by Bana et al, (2020). The LCC threshold 5 and SPAD 50 need-based application of 122 kg N ha -1 significantly increased yield attributes viz., number of grains cob -1 , grain weight plant -1 and 1000-grain weight and ultimately grain (3069 kg ha -1 ) and stover yield (4045 kg ha -1 ) of maize as compared to fixed time application of 125kg N ha -1 (Table 4).…”