Effect of various rice-based cropping systems on system productivity, uptake, utilization and use efficiency of N, P and K

A field experiment was conducted in Central Research Station of Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology, Bhubaneswar during wet, dry and summer seasons of 2006–07 and 2007–08 with an objective to study the effect of various rice-based cropping systems on system productivity, uptake, utilization and use efficiency of N, P and K. Rice-maize-okra system showed the highest system productivity of 25.91 t ha⁻¹ yr. The lowest system productivity (12.12 t ha⁻¹ yr ⁻¹) was with rice-groundnut-fallow system. Rice-maize-okra system removed the highest amount of N (293.5 kg ha⁻¹), P (62.1 kg ha⁻¹) and K (287.0 kg ha⁻¹) where as the lowest N, P and K uptake of 177.1, 41.0 and 201.3 kg ha⁻¹ was in rice-radish-sesame, rice-groundnut-cucumber and rice-groundnut-fallow systems, respectively. The highest N harvest index was obtained in rice-french bean-sesame system (90.17%) where as rice-french bean-bitter gourd system had the highest P and K harvest index of 95.45 and 92.52 per cent, respectively. The highest P uptake efficiency (1.49 kg uptake kg⁻¹ added) was observed in rice-french bean-sesame system. Rice-tomato-cowpea had the highest N, P and K utilization efficiency with corresponding values of 105.64, 485.73 and 83.25 kg REY kg⁻¹ uptake. This system was also best in respect of P and K use efficiency with 414.96 and 217.45 kg REY kg⁻¹ added, respectively.