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Attaining high
rice yield requires a balanced supply of N, P, K, and micronutrients.
However, rice farmers often do not apply sufficient fertilizer K to
replace the K removed with harvested plant parts, which can lead to
depletion of the K fertility of soil and loss of yield due to
insufficient supply of K. As such, farmers need to know whether the
supply of plant-available K at a given location is adequate for targeted
high yields. The K addition plot technique is a simple tool to assess
whether farmers should apply more fertilizer K to attain high yield and
profit.
The K addition
plot technique involves broadcasting fertilizer K, as muriate of potash
or KCl, to a small plot within the farmers’ fields. The grain yield from
the K addition plot is compared to the yield from an adjacent plot in
farmers’ fields, managed similarly but without adding more K than what
is usually used by the farmer. Higher yield in the K addition plot
indicates a deficiency of K, and highlights the need to apply additional
K fertilizer to achieve high yield. |
