• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact
    • Privacy
    • Terms of use
  • Subscribe
  • Your Membership

Science and Technology News

Dedicated to the wonder of discovery

  • News
  • Features
  • Life
  • Health
  • Research
  • Engineering

Digital precision agriculture tool helps Nepalese rice farmers breakthrough yield barriers

May 20, 2021 by Editor

Rice farmers in Nepal are chronically falling short of their potential productivity.

Poor rice yields are persistent across the Terai – a lowland region lying south of the outer foothills of the Himalayas that extends through southern Nepal into northern India – and existing decision support systems are failing to provide the precision required.

To date, farmers in the area have lacked the knowledge and support they need to properly plan nutrient applications for their crops.

Current nutrient recommendation systems only provide “blanket” prescriptions that fail to consider the large variability that occurs across their rice-growing landscapes.

Nepal’s rice yield gaps – the difference between actual and attainable yields – are widening as soil fertility declines, which represents a major threat to the sustainability of these smallholder farms.

Location of Nutrient Expert-Rice trial sites in the Terai and mid-hills regions of Nepal. Credit: © Amgain Lal Prasad

A team of researchers, headed by Dr. Lal Prasad Amgain, Far Western University, Nepal, along with Dr. Jagdish Timsina, Global Evergreening Alliance, Melbourne, Australia, looked at reversing this trend through the implementation of a flexible nutrient recommendation system that can adapt to the unique conditions faced by individual smallholder farmers.

Published in the Journal of Plant Nutrition, the article describes the impact of a 4-year study conducted across the Terai and the central mid-hill regions of Nepal. The basis for study is a broadly field-tested digital tool called Nutrient Expert® (NE).

This software-based system leads individual farmers, or farm advisors, through a step-by-step decision-making process that describes how best to apply nutrients to their rice fields.

Prior to its introduction into Nepal, NE Rice has been successfully implemented in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, as well as in China. The tool has been proven effective in a variety of smallholder cropping systems.

“Soil nutrient supply often varies greatly between neighboring fields,” explains Dr Sudarshan Dutta, co-author of the study and Scientist at the African Plant Nutrition Institute (APNI).

“This study adds innovation to the process of fertilizer application through the use of a tailored, scientifically robust approach.”

During the study, NE-based recommendations increased yields by over 2 t/ha compared to the status quo of farmers applying fertilizer based on either informal knowledge or generalized recommendations.

Given that the size of the yield gap for rice in Nepal is estimated at 3 t/ha, the NE approach shows great potential for contributing to the country’s nutrient security goals if adopted on a wider scale.

The economics of the approach also proved attractive as NE was capable of doubling rice crop profitability if compared to the generalized recommendations.

“Nutrient Expert gives farmer’s the confidence that they are using nutrients in the right way,” explains Dr. Kaushik Majumdar, APNI Director General, and co-author of the study.

“The tool also provides farmers with a clear plan on how to best match the timing of their applications with the periods of peak nutrient demand, which is a critical step to ensuring fertilizers are used most effectively.”

With these positive results in hand, researchers are looking to expand the effort through additional research on rice and other cereals.

“On-farm demonstrations provide the evidence that farmers, farm advisors, and other stakeholders need to pave the way for expanded adoption of the NE-based nutrient recommendations across Nepal,” concluded Dr Dutta.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • WhatsApp

Filed Under: Nature, News Tagged With: apni, applications, approach, compared, digital, dr, farmers, fertilizer, fields, generalized, ne, ne-based, nepal, nutrient, provide, recommendation, recommendations, researchers, rice, smallholder, study, system, systems, t/ha, tool, yield, yields

Primary Sidebar

Latest news

  • AutoX expands robotaxi operation zone to 1,000 sq km
  • Schaeffler acquires precision gearbox maker Melior Motion 
  • Sunflower Labs provides its security drone system to range of new customers
  • Monarch Tractor showcases ‘world’s first fully electric, driver-optional tractor’
  • Robot performs laparoscopic surgery without guiding hand of a human
  • Amazon owner’s Blue Origin to buy asteroid mining company Honeybee Robotics
  • Sydney scientists achieve ‘99 per cent accuracy’ for quantum computing in silicon
  • Ceremorphic unveils plans to build supercomputer infrastructure on 5 nanometer chips
  • Motion capture is guiding the next generation of extraterrestrial robots
  • Baidu’s autonomous electric carmaker Jidu raises $400 million in Series A financing

Most read

  • AutoX expands robotaxi operation zone to 1,000 sq km
    AutoX expands robotaxi operation zone to 1,000 sq km
  • Schaeffler acquires precision gearbox maker Melior Motion 
    Schaeffler acquires precision gearbox maker Melior Motion 
  • Sunflower Labs provides its security drone system to range of new customers
    Sunflower Labs provides its security drone system to range of new customers
  • Monarch Tractor showcases ‘world’s first fully electric, driver-optional tractor’
    Monarch Tractor showcases ‘world’s first fully electric, driver-optional tractor’
  • Robot performs laparoscopic surgery without guiding hand of a human
    Robot performs laparoscopic surgery without guiding hand of a human
  • Amazon owner’s Blue Origin to buy asteroid mining company Honeybee Robotics
    Amazon owner’s Blue Origin to buy asteroid mining company Honeybee Robotics
  • Sydney scientists achieve ‘99 per cent accuracy’ for quantum computing in silicon
    Sydney scientists achieve ‘99 per cent accuracy’ for quantum computing in silicon
  • Ceremorphic unveils plans to build supercomputer infrastructure on 5 nanometer chips
    Ceremorphic unveils plans to build supercomputer infrastructure on 5 nanometer chips
  • Motion capture is guiding the next generation of extraterrestrial robots
    Motion capture is guiding the next generation of extraterrestrial robots
  • Baidu’s autonomous electric carmaker Jidu raises $400 million in Series A financing
    Baidu’s autonomous electric carmaker Jidu raises $400 million in Series A financing

Live visitor count

274
Live visitors

Secondary Sidebar

Categories

  • Agriculture
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy
  • Biology
  • Brain
  • Chemistry
  • Computer games
  • Computing
  • Digital Economy
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering
  • Environment
  • Features
  • Genetics
  • Health
  • History
  • Industry
  • Life
  • Nature
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Physics
  • Research
  • Science
  • Social
  • Space
  • Technology
  • Uncategorized
  • Universe

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in