On- farm precision nutrient prescription under pre- dominant cereal- cereal systems using Nutrient Expert®

The project was initiated to optimize nutrient usage and maximize cereal – cereal systems productivity in various rice growing ecologies and geographies in India. The research project will compare yield and economic performance of field specific fertilizer recommendation through Nutrient Expert with the existing blanket recommendation for predominant cereal- cereal cropping systems in multiple locations of India.

IPNI-2014-IND-528

25 Mar 2015

2014 Annual Interpretive Summary


The project was initiated to optimize nutrient usage and maximize cereal–cereal systems productivity in various cereal growing ecology and geographies in India. The nutrient application in cereal-cereal systems of India is generally imbalanced, leading to low system productivity that not only reduces farm profits but also leads to multi-nutrient deficiency in soils. Nutrient Expert® (NE) for rice and maize, based on SSNM principles, waw evaluated in 5 locations under rice-wheat system (RWS), at 4 locations under rice-rice system (RRS), at 1 locations under rice-maize system (RMS), and at 3 locations under maize-wheat system (MWS) of the All India Coordinate Research Project on Integrated Farming System (AICRP-IFS) spread over 11 states of India. At each location, 10 on-farm trials were initiated during the rainy season of 2014 that compared three treatments including: NE-based fertilizer recommendation (NE), the State recommended fertilizer rate (SR), and farmers' fertilizer practice (FFP).

Results revealed that, on average, farmers apply 64 to 230 kg N/ha, 46 to 69 kg P2O5/ha, and 0 to 45 kg K2O/ha to rice under RWS; 9 to 195 kg N/ha, 45 to 58 kg P2O5/ha, and 0 to 75 kg K2O/ha to rice under RRS; 73 to 138 kg N/ha, 29 to 58 kg P2O5/ha, and 19 to 90 kg K2O/ha to rice under RMS; and 28 to 189 kg N/ha, 0 to 115 kg P2O5/ha and 0 to 75 kg K2O/ha to maize under MWS depending upon the cultivars grown at different locations. The NE-based fertilizer recommendation reduced nutrient use ranging from 3 to 89 kg N/ha and 9 to 49 kg P2O5/ha in rice under RWS, 29 to 77 kg N/ha and 16 to 30 kg P2O5/ha in RRS, 26 kg P2O5/ha in rice under RMS, 14 kg N/ha in maize under MWS at various location over FFP. The NE tool recommended additional K use ranging from 14 to 72 kg K2O/ha to rice and maize in different cropping systems at various locations.

The results highlighted the inadequate use of K in the cereals systems of India. The grain yield of rice in the NE treatment ranged between 4.2 to 5.8 t/ha in RWS and 5.2 to 8.2 t/ha in RRS, which was 14 to 45% higher than the FFP treatment. Similar yield gain in maize was 153 to 217% over FFP in the RMS and MWS. The NE recommendation improved yield over the different State recommendations at all the locations in different cropping systems.