Integrated Nutrient Management for Enhanced Yield, Nutrients Uptake and Their Use Efficiency in Rice under Intensive Rice-Wheat Cropping System

A field experiment was conducted during kharif season at Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa to assess the impact of conjoint use of organics and chemical fertilizers on yield, nutrients uptake and use efficiency in rice. Results revealed that among the organics, green manuring by dhaincha (GM) produced highest grain yield (39.90 q ha-1) followed by farm yard manure (39.26 q ha-1), urd (34.70 q ha-1) and straw (31.64 q ha-1). Increasing levels of inorganic fertilizers also increased the rice grain and straw yield with the maximum grain (44.94 q ha-1) and straw (61.05 q ha-1) yield was observed in 100% recommended NPK treatment. Among all the treatments, highest grain yield (53.24 q ha-1) and uptake of major nutrients i.e. N (112.27 kg ha-1), P (22.23 kg ha-1) and K (144.90 kg ha-1) in rice were observed under combined application of 100% NPK + GM. Besides this, the fertilizer use efficiency (FUE) in terms of apparent recovery for N, P and K was found maximum in the treatment replacing 50% of N through GM + 50% NPK. Thus, INM approach is not only a reliable way for obtaining fairly high productivity with increased FUE but also an alternative practice towards sustainable agriculture.