Green Manuring and Crop Residue Management in Rice Production

Abstract A series of field experiments were conducted to determine the nature of the effects of green manures and rice crop residue management on lowland rice production. Winter leguminous green manure was determined to be an inexpensive, efficient source of nitrogen which fits in well with continuous rice culture in the Mediterranean type climate of California. The marked response of rice to leguminous green manure was duplicated, for the most part, by inorganic nitrogen applications when properly placed in the reducing zone of the rice soil. Leguminous green manure served to add nitrogen to the highly carbonaceous rice crop residues. This permits decomposition to proceed without tying‐up nitrogen needed by the subsequent crop, and provides a satisfactory alternative to the deleterious practice of burning the residues.