Alternative Rice Straw Management and Its Effect on Soil Nutrients

Open burning of rice straw in field is a common practice in intensive rice growing areas. It is harmful to atmosphere and soil health because of air pollution and depletion of soil nutrients. Different methods of management of rice straw have been studied during this investigation. Rice straw has been incorporated into the soil with (25 kg of additional N ha-1 as basal + biomineralizer @2 kg t-1 of rice residue) and without additives; cow dung slurry @ 5 % individually or in combination of two or combined application of all the additives have been tested. Among these treatments, incorporation of straw with application of 25 kg of additional N ha-1 as basal + bio-mineralizer @2 kg t-1 of rice residue + cow dung slurry @ 5% (T8 ) registered the highest soil available N, P and K status at tillering, flowering and post-harvest stages of the crop. The control plots without rice crop residue (T9 ) recorded the lowest soil available N, P and K at all growth stages