Optimizing nitrogen management strategy under wheat straw incorporation for higher rice production and nitrogen use efficiency

Nitrogen (N) application plays an important role in rice production. Limited attention has already been paid to optimizing N fertilizer management strategy for higher grain yield and nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) of rice with crop residue incorporation. Field experiments were conducted with the objective to determine the response of several N application methods to rice production and to evaluate their NUE. Three N fertilizer application methods, i.e., local farmers' N fertilizer practice (FNP), modified farmers' N fertilizer practice (MNP), and increased the amount of N fertilizer practice (INP), were adopted with zero N application as control (CK). The results showed that, compared with that under FNP, grain yield was significantly higher under MFP, owing to signficantly enhanced total spikelets as a result of more panicles per unit area. Relative to FNP, MNP markedly increased nitrogen agronomic efficiency (AEN), nitrogen recovery efficiency (REN), nitrogen physiological efficiency (PEN) and nitrogen partial factor productivity (PFPN), but AEN, PEN and PFPN of INP were significantly lower. Further analysis showed that the number of tiller, leaf area index, aboveground biomass, SPAD value, plant N content and N uptake at the early vegetative stage were improved significantly under MNP compared to those under FNP, contributing to higher total aboveground biomass and total N uptake.