Nitrogen Management by Using Leaf Colour Chart in Kharif Rice in Alluvial Soils of West Bengal

Rice is the most important staple food of the state of West Bengal in India. The productivity of kharif rice in the North Bengal districts is not up to the state average which might have arisen from imbalanced nutrition, more specifically nitrogen application in soil. The study was conducted for assessing nitrogen scheduling in kharif rice through soil test based and leaf colour chart (LCC) based nitrogen top dressing. In general, 9.5 to 13 per cent yield increase over the farmers’ practice was obtained through LCC based nitrogen application coupled with soil test based P and K application over the couple of years of experiment. Rice yield in soil test based fertilizer application was found to be at par with that of LCC based application. However, LCC based nitrogen application saves farmers from unnecessary use of nitrogenous fertilizers and fetches an additional income of Rs.7500/- per ha compared to farmers’ practice.