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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Introducing mungbean as a preceding crop to enhance nitrogen uptake and yield of rainfed rice in the north-east of Thailand

P. Suriyakup A , A. Polthanee A , K. Pannangpetch A , R. Katawatin B , J. C. Mouret C and C. Clermont-Dauphin D E
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University, Thailand.

B Department of Land Resources and Environment, Faculty of Agriculture, Khon Kaen University, Thailand.

C UMR Innovation INRA SAD, 2 Place Viala, 34060 Montpellier, France.

D IRD (DRV-UR176 SOLUTIONS), Land Development Department, Office of Science for Land Development, Paholyothin Road, Chatuchak, Bangkok 10900, Thailand.

E Corresponding author. Email: Clermont@ird.fr

Australian Journal of Agricultural Research 58(11) 1059-1067 https://doi.org/10.1071/AR06309
Submitted: 16 May 2007  Accepted: 13 July 2007   Published: 26 November 2007

Abstract

One possible management option for farmers to improve the soil nitrogen (N) supply for rice production is the cultivation of a prior legume. The objective of this study was to investigate the value of such an option in the lowland of the north-east of Thailand. Two experiments were established in 2 typical locations in a split-plot design with 4 replicates. The main plots included 3 nitrogen levels (0, 30, and 60 kg N/ha) and the subplots, 4 pre-rice managements: (i) fallow with weeds removed (FW–); (ii) with weeds incorporated before the rice crop (FW+); (iii) mungbean incorporated at flowering as green manure (MGM); or (iv) incorporated after grains harvest (MR+). In both experiments the difference in rice yield between MGM and MR+ was not significant. In Expt 1, in contrast to Expt 2, the rice yield increase due to MR+ was significant and significantly higher than that due to application of 60 kg N/ha. Moreover, significantly higher apparent recovery of N (ANRm, kg N uptake increase/kg N supplied by residues), probably due to the continuous flooding of the soil surface, was achieved in this experiment. The low values of internal efficiency of N (IEN, kg total grains/kg total N uptake), ANRf (Δ kg N uptake/kg N supplied by fertiliser), and of ANUEf (Δ kg grains/kg applied N fertiliser) recorded in the MR+ treatment of Expt 1, suggest that no application of N fertiliser is needed where the soil water conditions allow high recovery of the N supplied by a preceding mungbean crop.

Additional keywords: apparent N recovery, internal N efficiency, mungbean residues, N dilution curves, rice crop.


Acknowledgments

Financial support from The Thailand Research Fund is gratefully acknowledged.


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