Abstract
Nitrogen supply is critical in attaining yield potential. Achieving the 50% higher yields that will be needed by 2025 will require at least double the 10 m tons of N fertilizer that is currently used each year for rice production. But manufacturing of fertilizer N is dependent on fast depleting non-renewable energy resources. It is in this context that biological nitrogen-fixation-derived N assumes importance in the lowland soils that provide about 86% of the world's rice.
Among the conventional systems, green-manure legumes have high N supply potential. But due to associated additional costs such as labour and land opportunity, they do not form an attractive option for farmers. Rice associative N2 fixation (ANF) although has low activities, any increase will be attractive to farmers as it does not require changes in existing cropping systems, and soil and water management practices. Recently, we identified quantitative trait loci underlying ANF in rice (Wu, P.; Zhang, G.; Ladha, J. K.; McCouch, S. and Huang, N.: Restriction fragment length polymorphic markers associated with rice varietal ability to stimulate nitrogen fixation in rhizosphere. Rice Genetic Newsletter 1994 — submitted). The presence of this trait in rice provides an evidence of the occurrence of genetic factors which regulate interaction of rice with diazotrophs in rhizosphere. However, the ANF trait governing the loose diazotroph-rice association appears to have limited potential for enhancing yield. To achieve higher yields, intimate association similar to sugar cane-Acetobacter/legume-rhizobia symbioses will have to be developed in rice. In this paper, we discuss the strategies for transferring nitrogen-fixing capacity to rice.
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Ladha, J.K., Reddy, P.M. Extension of nitrogen fixation to rice — Necessity and possibilities. GeoJournal 35, 363–372 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00989144
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00989144