Nitrification Inhibitor Cuts Emissions and Increases Yields of Direct Seeded Rice
More than 50% of applied nitrogen is not utilized by plants and lost from the soil-plant system, which not only causes an economic cost to farmers but also environmental pollution. The losses are in the forms of reactive species including nitrate, ammonium, ammonia, nitrous oxide, nitric oxide, and more. These nitrogen forms are responsible for causing environmental pollution and health hazards for humans and animals. Nitrate leaching causes groundwater contamination and eutrophication; ammonia emissions cause human health hazards; nitrous oxide is a greenhouse gas, which is 265 times potent compared to carbon dioxide and responsible for global warming and stratospheric ozone depletion; and nitric oxide depletes the ozone layer.
Precision N Application Increases Yields and Nitrogen Use Efficiency of Rain-Fed Rice
Nitrogen fertilizer management under rainfed conditions is challenging since farmers may not be able to properly time the topdressing due to extended drought or flood (i.e., excess rainfall). This results in low nitrogen availability under rain-fed conditions. Deep placement of briquetted urea is considered a sustainable approach under irrigated rice conduction; however, its impacts on rain-fed drought conditions are not clear.
Researchers from the Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC), the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC), and the Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), with support from USAID’s Bureau for Resilience and Food Security (RFS), demonstrated that precision nitrogen management through deep placement of briquetted urea can achieve multiple benefits of increased crop yields and farm profits with reduced fertilizer application, compared to conventional broad