ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Soil Sci.
Sec. Soil Organic Matter Dynamics and Carbon Sequestration
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsoil.2025.1649105
This article is part of the Research TopicSoil Organic Matter for Global Soil Health and DecarbonizationView all 8 articles
Identifying the Optimum Level of Rice Crop Residue as a Partial Fertilizer Substitute for Enhancing Yield and Soil Health: Multi-Location Evidence from India
Provisionally accepted- 1Indian Institute of Rice Research (ICAR), Hyderabad, India
- 2Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru College of Agriculture and Research Institute, Puducherry, India
- 3Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology of Jammu, Jammu, India
- 4Rice Research Station, Kerala Agricultural University, Moncompu, India
- 5Dr Rajendra Prasad Central Agricultural University, Samastipur, India
- 6Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, Pantnagar, India
- 7Uttar Banga Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Cooch Behar, India
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To address agricultural challenges like residue burning and excessive inorganic fertilizer use, a two-year (2023-2024) multi-location field experiment was conducted across five diverse Indian agro-ecological zones. Six integrated nutrient management strategies were tested: T1 (100% Recommended Dose of Fertilizers (RDF)), T2 (50% RDF + 50% RDF via residue), T3 (50% RDF + 50% RDF via residue + Pusa decomposer (PD)), T4 (50% RDF via residue + 50% RDF via green manure/green leaf manure), T5 (75% RDF + 25% via residue + PD), and T6 (control). Conventional fertilization (T1) consistently achieved the highest mean grain yield across locations. However, T5 (25% RDF substitution via crop residue) produced statistically comparable yields to T1, even surpassing it by 7.6% at Moncompu. Treatments T2 and T3 generally incurred yield penalties (10-28%), except at Karaikal, where T2 increased yield (+5% in 2023; +11.6% in 2024), due to favorable decomposition conditions. Despite yield trade-offs, T2 and T3 (50% RDF substitution via crop residue) exhibited superior yield stability across locations. Soil nutrient dynamics varied considerably by location and treatment. While T2 and T3 caused partial phosphorus (P) depletion, they consistently improved soil potassium (K) and organic carbon (OC). P buildup was seen in T2/T5 at Karaikal and T1-T5 at Pusa. Similarly, K buildup was seen across most treatments and sites, though K mining was widespread at Pantnagar. Nitrogen (N) and OC showed mixed results, with some treatments leading to accumulation and others depletion. The T6 consistently showed the highest nutrient depletion across all parameters. T1 yielded the highest partial factor productivity of nitrogen (PFP-N) at 47 kg grain/kg N, closely followed by T5 (44 kg grain/kg N). T3 (42.5 kg grain/kg N) was statistically similar to T5, establishing a PFP-N hierarchy of T1 > T5 ≈ T3 > T2 ≈ T4.Grain yield correlated positively with agronomic traits like tiller number, panicle density, and 1000-grain weight, all linked to N and K availability. Thus, co-application of 75% RDF via fertilizers and 25% using crop residues with microbial decomposers (T5) is recommended as a sustainable alternative integrated approach to conventional fertilization.
Keywords: AMMI model, Fertilisers, Integrated nutrient management, stability analysis, Residue recycling
Received: 18 Jun 2025; Accepted: 26 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Rajendran, Vijayakumar, Laxminarayan, Lone, Joseph, Kumar, Pant, S, Babu, Mahender Kumar and Sundaram. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shanmugam Vijayakumar, Indian Institute of Rice Research (ICAR), Hyderabad, India
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