Field validation of Nutrient Expert for single season rice in China
Nutrient Expert Rice was developed to evaluate and validate fertilizer recommendation method based yield response and agronomic efficiency as compared with soil testing and farmer's practice
IPNI-2014-CHN-NESR
25 Mar 2015
2014 Annual Interpretive Summary
The Nutrient Expert(R) (NE) for rice decision support system was first validated in single season rice in Heilongjiang and Jilin in 2014. The objective was to test the NE-based fertilizer recommendation method against soil test-based recommendations and farmer’s practice (FP). Each individual site had a site-specific rate applied. The NE-based plots received an average of 151-65-91 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha, while the FP plots received an average of 150-55-77 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha, and soil test plots received an average of 141-55-93 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha in Heilongjiang. For Jilin, the NE-based plots received 179-68-87 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha, while FP plots received 187-74-89 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha, and soil test plots received 181-47-67 kg N-P2O5-K2O/ha.
Ten field validation experiments on single-season rice were conducted in Heilongjiang. The grain yield under NE (8.5 t/ha) was significantly higher than under soil test recommendations (8.2 t/ha) and FP (7.8 t/ha). The average agronomic efficiency (AE) and partial factor productivity (PFP) values for N were 22.7 kg/kg and 56.2 kg/kg, respectively, for NE; 22.4 kg/kg and 58.3 kg/kg for soil testing; and 17.9 kg/kg and 51.7 kg/kg for FP.
Ten field validation experiments on NE single-season rice were conducted in Jilin. No significant grain yield difference between NE, soil test and FP treatment (i.e., 9.1 t/ha, 9.0 t/ha and 9.2 t/ha) was found. As with yield, the AE and PFP value did not show differences amongst the three treatments.
The NE recommendation system for single season rice appears to be a promising method where soil test recommendations are not available or timely.