Myanmar Soil Fertility and Fertilizer Management CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS
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Myanmar Soil Fertility and Fertilizer Management CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS October 18-19, 2017 DAR Auditorium Yezin, Nay Pyi Taw Organized By: Fertilizer Sector Improvement Project, International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC) Division of Soil Science, Water Utilization and Agricultural Engineering, Department of Agricultural Research (DAR), Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Australian Government Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research Table of Contents Opening Session ................................................................................. 1 Opening Address by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation ..................................................................................... 1 USAID Address ................................................................................................. 3 ACIAR Address ................................................................................................. 5 IFDC Address .................................................................................................... 7 Keynote Address ................................................................................ 9 Soil Fertility and Fertilizers in Sustainable Agricultural Development: What Is the Way Forward for Myanmar? ....................................................................... 9 Session 1. Soil Fertility and Crop Nutrient Management ............ 22 Role of Yield Potential and Yield-Gap Analyses on Resource-Use Efficiency Improvement .................................................................................................... 22 Evaluation of Low-N Tolerant Rice Varieties through the Use of 15N Isotope Dilution Technique .......................................................................................... 38 Comparison of Yield Response and Nutrient Use Efficiency between Urea Deep Placement Technology and Farmers’ Practice of Surface Broadcasting Urea on Transplanted Lowland Rice in Myanmar ........................................... 47 Economics of Fertilizer Use Efficiency for Selected Crops in Tatkone Township ......................................................................................................... 55 Nutrient Management for Maximizing Yield in Rice-Rice and Rice-Pulse Cropping Systems in Lower Myanmar ............................................................ 66 Dry Season Rice Yield Responses to Nitrogen Fertilizer in Central Myanmar .......................................................................................................... 78 Challenges Identifying Fertilizer Responses in Infertile Coarse-Textured Soils of the Central Dry Zone – A Field Perspective ............................................... 89 Phosphorus and Sulfur Placement Strategies for Improving Groundnut Production in Coarse-Textured Soils of the Central Dry Zone ....................... 95 Soil Nutrient Limitations Define Farming Systems in the Central Dry Zone of Myanmar ........................................................................................................ 101 Using a Simple Nutrient Balance Calculator to Build Awareness of Soil Nutrient Removal in Harvested Produce and the Importance of Fertilizers in Soil Fertility ................................................................................................... 108 Session 2. Fertilizer Recommendations and Their Extension to and Adoption by Farmers ............................................................. 117 Urea Deep Placement Technology and Its Extension to Farmers in Myanmar ........................................................................................................ 117 Myanmar Soil Fertility and Fertilizer Management Conference | October 18-19, 2017 UDP Technology and Rice Yields Among Farmer Beneficiaries of Rainfed Lowland Project Areas in Myanmar .............................................................. 135 Economic and Social Issues for Fertilizer Decisions of Smallholder Farmers in Myanmar ........................................................................................................ 150 A Conceptual Framework for Delivering Improved Fertilizers to Smallholder Farmers in Africa ........................................................................................... 169 Digital Land Resource Mapping to Inform Location-Specific Soil Management Advice ...................................................................................... 176 From Site-Specific Nutrient Management or Tailor-Made Fertilizer to a Soil Clinic in Thailand .......................................................................................... 177 The Role of Agribusiness in Advisory and Marketing Services in Myanmar 181 Sensor Technology for Soil Testing to Provide Fertilizer Recommendations for Smallholder Farmers in Myanmar ........................................................... 194 Fertilizer Use by Upland Farmers in the Magway Region of the Central Dry Zone of Myanmar .......................................................................................... 195 Session 3. Environmental Impacts and the Role of Fertilizers in Promoting Crop Resilience ........................................................... 204 Role of Nuclear and Isotopic Techniques in Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation ....................................................................................................... 204 Methane Emissions as Affected by Rice Genotypes under Different Water Management ................................................................................................... 208 Efficient Fertilizer and Water Management in Rice Cultivation for Food Security and Mitigating Greenhouse Gas Emissions ..................................... 214 The Role of Mineral Fertilizers in Climate-Resilient Agriculture: Focus on Myanmar ........................................................................................................ 221 Session 4. Fertilizer Quality Assessment ...................................... 242 Fertilizer Quality Assessment in the Myanmar Dry Zone ............................. 242 Nitrogen Content and Fertilizer Quality in Central Myanmar ....................... 255 Quality of Fertilizer and Its Rapid Assessment using MicroNIR .................. 264 Challenges in Establishing a Private Fertilizer Quality Assurance Laboratory in Myanmar .................................................................................................... 271 The Future of Research in Soil Fertility and Fertilizer Management in Myanmar – What to Do, How to Do, Who to Do It ...................................... 285 Myanmar Soil Fertility and Fertilizer Management Conference | October 18-19, 2017 Opening Session Opening Address by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation Dr. Tin Htut The minister of MOALI asked me to convey this message on his behalf. I asked him, “What is the message you want to deliver to our international audience at this important event?” He said, “What I want is sustainable agriculture through fertilizer management.” These are very important words for us. Myanmar needs a mental shift. Myanmar needs good practices in fertilizer management and plant nutrition management. In fact, this is the very place I originated. I spent 37 years in the Ministry, and I spent more than 30 years in this institution [Department of Agricultural Research, DAR] as a plant breeder and agronomist. And later, I had a dream of breeding nitrogen use efficient rice varieties. But technically, Myanmar is very much behind. It is my pleasure to welcome you all to this Soil Fertility and Fertilizer Management Conference. It is also my pleasure to be here for the first conference to be held in this splendid new auditorium. Let me start by thanking the organizers, DAR and IFDC, for what is expected to be a landmark event for agriculture in Myanmar. I also want to thank the donors, USAID and ACIAR for their support. I understand that this conference is referred to as a national conference, but I can see it has an international flavor and there are scientists here from the USA, Australia, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Nepal. I welcome you. You will have a chance to see some of our beautiful country and its tremendous agriculture resources and potential for development. Agriculture accounts for about one-third of our GDP and two-thirds of our employees. I thus say 64% of employment is from agriculture. To place this conference into context, I would like to share with you the Vision of our Agricultural Policy – ensuring food security along with an increase in the production of highly profiting farm products for export. It aims to improve the socioeconomic life of our people under a framework of sustainable development. We want farmers producing and selling products to contribute to the economic growth of the nation as well as ensure its people have a balanced intake of nutritious food. We want this to be done in a manner that will sustain or improve productivity. In fact, I would just like to update you on what we are doing right now. For more than 50 years, we were blind, closing our eyes and our ears. When we opened our eyes to the world, we have seen that Myanmar is the final frontier in Southeast Asia. We have tremendous potential but it’s largely frozen. What we need is strong agricultural policy. We need system-wide reform and sector-wide strategies. Without sound agricultural