ISSN 2756-3650
International Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics Vol. 2 (3), pp. 001-007, March, 2013. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Calibrating the leaf color chart for rice nitrogen management in Northern Iran
Alireza Houshmandfar1* and Anthony Kimaro2
1Department of Agronomy and Plant Breeding, Islamic Azad University, Saveh Branch, Saveh, Iran.
2Department of Soil Science, University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
Accepted 18 January, 2013
Abstract
The high and inefficient use of Nitrogen (N) fertilizer continues to be a problem in rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivation sites in Northern Iran. The leaf color chart (LCC) based N management can be used to optimize N application with crop demand or to improve existing fixed split N recommendations. We conducted a field experiment in 2008 at Amol region of Northern Iran, to determine the LCC critical value for N application in different rice genotypes. Treatments included 12 LCC based N management contained the combination of three critical levels of LCC (3, 4 and 5) with four levels of N application (20, 25, 30 and 35 kg ha-1) for two rice genotypes which consist of Tarom-Hashemi and GRH-1 were compared with the zero N control and a recommended fixed time N splitting. Nitrogen was applied in form of urea as per treatment schedule and the LCCs assessed at 10 days intervals from 12 days after transplanting. Result showed a considerable opportunity to increase farmers yield and N use efficiency (NUE) levels through improved N management with the LCC. The critical LCC value of 4 with 25 kg N ha-1 for Tarom-Hashemi and critical LCC value of 4 with 35 kg N ha-1 for GRH-1 were found to be suitable for guiding N application to achieve the highest grain yield for the Amol region of Northern Iran.
Key words: Oryza sativa L., N management, LCC, N use efficiency.