Soil Fertility Management for Organic Rice Production in the Lao PDR
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CORE Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems: 21(4); 253–260 DOI:Metadata, 10.1079/RAF2006161 citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by RERO DOC Digital Library Soil fertility management for organic rice production in the Lao PDR W. Roder1,*, S. Schu¨rmann2, P. Chittanavanh3, K. Sipaseuth3, and M. Fernandez4 1CIP/CFC, PO Box 670, Thimphu, Bhutan. 2Swiss College of Agriculture, Zollikofen, Bern, Switzerland. 3Project for the Promotion of Organic Farming and Marketing in Lao PDR, Vientiane, Lao PDR. 4Project Promotion of Organic Rice from Lao PDR, Vientiane, Lao PDR. *Corresponding author: [email protected] Accepted 23 March 2006 Research Paper Abstract Rice is the most important agricultural commodity of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), produced largely using traditional methods with limited inputs of fertilizers and other chemicals. The country has a wide diversity in rice production systems and rice varieties, with over 3000 different varieties recorded. The rich diversity and the production environment and methods are favorable for organic rice production. Investigations were carried out to describe soil fertility conditions, management practices, opportunities and problems associated with organic production methods for rice. Soils used for rice production are mostly of low fertility, with low organic matter and N-availability. In spite of this, virtually no fertilizer inputs are used for upland rice production. Inorganic fertilizer inputs for lowland rice production have increased rapidly over the past decade, but are still below 20 kg ha-1. The most important nutrient sources are rice straw and manure from buffalo and cattle. Chromolaena odorata plays an important role in nutrient cycling in upland rice systems and is sometimes added to lowland fields. In a range of fertility management studies, yield increase ranged from 2 to 89% for manure, straw or rice husk applied at modest rates (3 t ha-1), 32–156% for modest rates of inorganic fertilizer (60 kg N ha-1) and 36–167% for combined application of manure or crop residues with inorganic fertilizer. The response to locally produced commercial organic fertilizer was poor. The most promising inputs and strategies available to optimize yields in organic rice production systems are (1) optimizing use of locally available nutrients, mostly from manure, crop residues and weed biomass, (2) N addition through green manure and legumes growing in rotation and (3) additions of P through guano or rock-phosphate. The Lao PDR is fortunate to have substantial bat guano deposits in limestone caves. Extensive experience is available on straw and husk management for lowland systems and green manure species for upland production systems. Key words: manure, rice straw, rice husks, organic fertilizer, rock-phosphate, guano, green manure species Introduction and/or organic rice for export markets is often seen as a potentially promising opportunity2. Within the past few Rice is by far the most important crop for the Lao People’s years, the interest for organic production and expectations Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), grown on more than from market opportunities for organic products from the 700,000 ha annually. Based on water management, the rice- Lao PDR have increased rapidly3. The Ministry of growing areas are grouped into rainfed lowland, irrigated Agriculture and Forestry and various projects and organiza- lowland and upland rice; each of these represents approxi- tions are promoting organic production methods for market mately 75, 10 and 15% of the total area under rice1. Rice production and for home consumption. Prevailing condi- yields are generally low with a national average of 3.4, tions favoring organic rice production generally recognized 4.5 and 1.8 t ha-1 for rainfed lowland, irrigated lowland and include: (1) many rainfed rice production environments are upland, respectively1. Most of the rice varieties are marginal with limited response to high yielding varieties glutinous. Lao rice producers generally consider the and high input systems; (2) Lao rice producers presently absence of a market or the low market price as the main use only limited fertilizer inputs; and (3) traditional factors limiting production (Helvetas, 2005. ProRice— production methods still widely used are largely organic Phase I, 2006–2008. Project Document, Vientiane, unpub- (Helvetas, 2005. ProRice—Phase I, 2006–2008. Project lished). At the same time, the production of speciality rice Document, Vientiane, unpublished). # CAB International 2006 Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 11 Jul 2017 at 16:55:59, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1079/RAF2006161 254 W. Roder et al. In the European or North American context, organic 10 agriculture with annual crops is mostly based on mixed farming systems with legumes in the rotation and high ) 8 inputs of manure. Under European conditions, cereal grain –1 yields from organic production systems are about 10–30% 6 lower when compared to conventional systems. Further- more, studies comparing organic and conventional pro- 4 duction have generally used the same rates of N provided either through manure or compost for organic treatments or through inorganic fertilizers with or without manure Fertilizer (1000 t yr 2 for conventional treatments4,5. With N application rates of 100 kg and above, manure applications for organic 0 treatments are in the range of 10–20 t ha-1. 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 Soil fertility management will be a major challenge for organic rice production in the Lao PDR. The European Figure 1. Fertilizer import (each bar represents the average of the year indicated and the year before17). and North American experiences will have only limited application as the Lao rice farmers will not have the benefits of a mixed farming system nor will they have Studies by Lao-IRRI project and others access to the required quantities of manure. Substantial information on soil fertility management, the use of organic From 1990–2002, the Lao-International Rice Research fertilizers, residue management and green manure has been Institute (IRRI) project carried out a range of studies generated under Lao conditions; some of these results and evaluating the effect of organic fertilizer, manure, rock- experiences can be directly applied for organic production. phosphate, straw applications and green manure in lowland Investigations were carried out with the objectives to: and upland rice production systems across a range of 6–14 1. describe current soil fertility conditions and manage- environments . The results available in annual reports ment practices for the major Lao rice production were revisited and summarized. systems, 2. summarize experimental soil fertility management data Survey organizations recommending relevant for organic rice production in Laos, and organic agriculture 3. describe inputs available and recommendations given Information was collected from non-government organi- for soil fertility management in organic production zations which recommend organic agriculture or ‘clean systems. agriculture’ through informal interviews supported by questionnaires. Methods Results Locally available source of inputs Soil fertility and current management practices Information on existing and potential locally available for lowland rice sources for soil fertility management in organic agriculture Lowland rice soils in the southern part of Laos are was collected from the literature and contacts with input 15 suppliers and fertilizer factories. predominantly Acrisols . Typically, these soils are highly weathered, have a low inherent fertility, a low pH and a low cation-exchange capacity. Soil data (0–20 cm) indicate that Literature review and secondary data 80% of the soils in the south contain less than 2% organic matter, 68% are coarse textured sand and 87% have a pH Documents and information relating to fertility manage- of less than 5.5. Of all the elements tested, N was the most ment in general and the use of organic inputs in particular important yield-limiting factor but the severity varied were collected from published and unpublished sources. considerably between sites15. The second most limiting factor was P, with 71% of the sites in the south and 37% of Survey of rice producers the sites in the north responding to P application. In spite of the low fertility, using chemical fertilizer for rainfed An economic survey was carried out in 2004, in three lowland rice production is a recently introduced practice for districts of Champasak province in collaboration with the Laos. In a survey conducted in 1996, 60% of the farmers Provincial Agriculture Service. Formal survey question- reported that they started using fertilizer only after 199516. naires were used to collect production and economic data. In the past ten years, fertilizer consumption has increased For the present paper, only the cost of inputs and rice yields rapidly (Fig. 1), but based on the FAO statistics17 the were used. average fertilizer consumption is still <10 kg ha-1 land Downloaded from https:/www.cambridge.org/core. University of Basel Library, on 11 Jul 2017 at 16:55:59, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https:/www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1079/RAF2006161 Soil fertility management in the Lao PDR 255 20 6 Table 1. Results of fertilizer studies in upland rice . Increase in 5 Parameters studied rice yield (%) ) 4 Application of N during early phase 0–20 –1 Application of N during booting stage 0–40 3 Application of N after flowering 0–70 Application of N in two splits 0–69 Yield (t ha 2 Application of N in three splits 0–80 Application of P fertilizer 0–15 1 0 Table 2. Effect of residue management and mulching in upland 0 1020304050607080 rice20. Fertilizer cost (US$ ha–1) Effect on rice Figure 2. Investment in fertilizer and rice yield for rainfed rice in Parameters studied yield (%) Kong, Sukumma and Phonethong districts (Champasak province).