Balancing Fertilizer Use And Profit In Asia’s Irrigated Rice Systems

Topdressing N fertilizer to rice. (Photo courtesy of IRRI).

Increasing fuel and fertilizer prices raise concern about whether Asian rice farming can successfully maintain the delicate balance between sufficient profitability for farmers and sufficient rice supply at affordable prices for the urban and the non-farming rural poor. Rising prices for fertilizers could stimulate rice farmers and policy makers to examine existing use of fertilizer. Reductions in fertilizer use and adjustment in the relative use of fertilizer N, P, and K might appeal to farmers and policy makers as fertilizer prices increase. But, crop yield is directly related to amount of nutrient taken up by a crop. At some point, less fertilizer use means lower crop yield and less profit for farmers. How much fertilizer use is just right for high profit? In this paper we provide principles that address critical agronomic and economic issues at the farm level as fertilizer prices increase. We aim for principles that assist farmers in decision making on nutrient and crop management to achieve high productivity and profitability at low risk while meeting acceptable standards of environmental quality.

This article is published in Better Crops Vol. 92 (2008) No. 1.

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