New edition of Rice: A Practical Guide to Nutrient Management

Edited by Thomas Fairhurst, Christian Witt, Roland Buresh, and Achim Dobermann

In the last five years, site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) for rice has become an integral part of initiatives on improving nutrient management in many Asian countries. Nutrient recommendations were tailored to location-specific needs, evaluated together with rice farmers, and promoted through public and private partnerships at wide-scale. The first edition of Rice: A Practical Guide to Nutrient Management published in 2002 quickly became the standard reference for printed materials on SSNM. The guide was high in demand with 2,000 copies distributed and sold to date.

Over the years, SSNM has been continually refined through research and evaluation as part of the Irrigated Rice Research Consortium. Conceptual improvements and simplifications were made particularly in nitrogen management. A standardized 4-panel leaf color chart (LCC) was produced and the promotion of the new LCC continues with more than 250,000 units distributed until the end of 2006. A new SSNM web site was developed (www.irri.org/irrc/ssnm) to provide up-to-date information and local recommendations for major rice-growing areas in Asia. The revised edition of the practical guide thus became necessary to be consistent with newer information provided in the SSNM web site and local training materials. We are pleased that this 2nd edition is about to be translated into a number of languages including Bangla, Chinese, Hindi, Indonesian, and Vietnamese.

This pocket-sized guide introduces the concept of yield gaps and the underlying constraints. The functions of each nutrient are explained in detail, with a description of the deficiency symptoms and recommended strategies for improved nutrient management. The 47-page color annex provides a pictorial guide to the identification of nutrient deficiencies in rice.

To make the 2^nd edition of the guide as widely accessible as possible, the publishers decided not only to sell the guide through their web sites and bookstores, but also to make the guide available in electronic format (pdf) at the websites of IRRI (www.irri.org) and the Southeast Asia Program of IPNI and IPI (www.ipni.net/seasia) using a Creative Commons “attribution-noncommercial-share alike” license:  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

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