Management of N fertilizers in direct-seeded rice

Abstract

Puddled transplanted rice (PTR) is highly labour, energy intensive and requires more than 200 cm of water (mostly underground) and produces nearly 10% of global methane emissions. Therefore, direct seeded rice (DSR) is advocated as a sustainable alternative for reducing water, energy and fertilizer footprints which improve soil health, and declining land and water productivities. To realize DSR yield levels, farmers use nitrogenous (N) fertilizers indiscriminately which enhance nitrous oxide emissions. To reduce different input footprints, viz. water, N fertilizers etc and improve soil health and mitigate global warming consequences in DSR, farmers advocated to go for
soil testing. However, farmers overuse particularly N fertilizers to improve their yield potentials which on one hand increased costs of cultivation while on other added to global warming. Hence, farmers needed to replace the deficit nitrogen requirement using need-based in-season fertilizer topdressings or following site-specific nutrient management. Current article discusses ‘PAU-Leaf Colour Chart (PAU-LCC) for sustainable N management in DSR as it is simple, inexpensive, and a farmer-friendly device to enhance crop yields and manage N in a sustainable way.