Application of Different Rates of N:P:K Fertilizer on the Growth and Yield Components of Upland Rice in Rice-Soybean Intercropping System

Abstract

Nigeria is one of the fastest developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and hence, there is an urgent need to invest in agriculture to boost food production to meet the citizen's nutritional needs and for export. Due to the increasing population, urbanisation and industrialisation in Nigeria, especially in the South East, with a small land mass, intercropping is highly recommended. A two-year field experiment was carried out in the 2018 and 2019 cropping seasons to assess the effect of the application of different rates of N:P:K fertiliser on the growth and yield components of upland rice in a rice-soybean intercropping system. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. The treatment includes rice and soybeans with five levels of N:P:K 15 :15 :15 (0, 100, 200, 300 and 400 kg) fertiliser rates, as well as rice sole and soybean sole. The result showed that the interaction of upland rice and soybean with N:P:K fertiliser significantly affected the plant height, number of leaves, leaf area index, number of panicles per plant and number of seeds per rice plant. Based on the result of this investigation, it was observed that the cropping system and increased fertiliser rates positively affected upland rice's growth and yield component. It was noted that the N:P:K fertiliser rate (400 kg) gave the highest growth and yield component of upland rice in the rice/soybean intercropping system.