| Abstract: | The rice‐wheat annual double cropping system occupies some 0.5 million ha in the Himalayan foothills of Nepal. Alternating soil drying and wetting cycles characterize the 6–10 weeks long dry‐to‐wet season transition period (DWT) after wheat harvesting and before wetland rice transplanting. Mineral fertilizer use in the predominant smallholder agriculture is low and crops rely largely on native soil N for their nutrition. Changes in soil aeration status during DWT are likely to stimulate soil N losses. The effect of management options that avoid the nitrate build‐up in soils during DWT by N immobilization in plant or microbial biomass was studied under controlled conditions in a greenhouse (2001/2002) and validated under field conditions in Nepal in 2002. In potted soil in the greenhouse, the gradual increase in soil moisture resulted in a nitrate N peak of 20 mg (kg soil)–1 that rapidly declined as soil moisture levels exceeded 40 % water‐filled pore space (equiv. 75 % field capacity). Similarly, the maximum soil nitrate build‐up of 40 kg N ha–1 under field conditions was followed by its near complete disappearance with soil moisture levels exceeding 46 % water‐filled pore space at the onset of the monsoon rains. Incorporation of wheat straw and/or N uptake by green manure crops reduced nitrate accumulation in the soil to < 5 mg N kg–1 in pots and < 30 kg N ha–1 in the field (temporary N immobilization), thus reducing the risk for N losses to occur. This “saved” N benefited the subsequent crop of lowland rice with increases in N accumulation from 130 mg pot–1 (bare soil) to 185 mg pot–1 (green manure plus wheat straw) and corresponding grain yield increases from 1.7 Mg ha–1 to 3.6 Mg ha–1 in the field. While benefits from improved soil N management on lowland rice are obvious, possible carry‐over effects on wheat and the feasibility of proposed options at the farm level require further studies. |
