EVALUATION OF UREA DEEP PLACEMENT AND FARMER MANAGEMENT PRACTICES ON PERFORMANCE AND GRAIN YIELD OF RICE (Oryza sativa L) AT THE TONO IRRIGATION SITE

Abstract

Agricultural technology Transfer (ATT) project embarked on a scaling up campaign of the ‘Urea deep Placement’ (UDP) nitrogen management system that was expected to transform rice production in the Tono Irrigation Scheme (TIS). The technology was expected to be adopted by rice farmers in the project area, after its introduction in 2015. However, certain farmers still remain apprehensive about using the technology for several reasons. This study combined farmer surveys and detailed rice phenological characterization to validate the efficiency of the UDP technology. Structured questionnaires were used to collect primary data from willing collaborating farmers to learn about farmer perceptions and management strategies with respect to UDP and any other N management practices. The field experiment consisted of five UDP and five non-UDP fields in each zone. Five 50 cm x 50 cm quadrats were randomly sited in each farmers field and phenological data (including plant number, tiller numbers and productive tiller numbers and grains per panicle) were collected and aggregated for each farmer. Grain yield data were collected from three 2 m x 2 m quadrats from each farmers field after harvesting. The study revealed that gender, education, farming experience and adoption of UDP influenced rice yield in the scheme. Yield components; tiller number, effective tiller number and grains per panicle except 1000 grain weight obtained with UDP were significantly higher than non-UDP. Rice grain yield obtained with UDP (7.05 MT/ha) was significantly higher than non-UDP (6.19 MT/ha). The study reinforces the assertion that using UDP technology results in significant increase in rice yields over traditional farmer management. The study recommends that farmers should use UDP technology to maximize grain yields in irrigated rice cropping system.