SOIL FERTILITY MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY FOR RICE FARMERS: Indonesian Experience

1. SOIL FERTILITY MANAGEMENT TECHNOLOGY FOR RICE FARMERS: Indonesian Experience Achmad Rachman Sri Rochayati Diah Setyorini Indonesian Agency for AgriculturalResearch and Development (AARD)

2. THE IMPORTANT OF RICE • The staple food of more than 1 billion people • Around 700 million people live in rice-growing countries of Asia • More than 40% of the calorie consumption of most Asians • Poor people spend as much as 30-40% of their income on rice alone • Crucial to poverty reduction • Unsolved problems of food could become the source of other economic difficulties

3. Current of Figure of Indonesia • Population : 220 million • Pop growth rate : 1.35%/year • Total land area : 190 million ha • Agriculture sector in Indonesia • Provides job opportunities to 20 million households • Contributes 66% to GDP • Rice harvested area : 12.4 million ha • Rice productivity : 4.87 ton/ha • Rice consumption : 137 kg/cap/year

4. Harvested area, production, and yield of lowland rice in Indonesia

5. SUSTAINABILITYOF RICE FIELD • Natural supply of nutrients • Tolerant to monoculture cropping system • Relatively easy to handle weeds • From the water irrigation • N fixation from blue algae and Azotobacter • Increased of P availability

6. DEGRADATION OF RICE FIELD • Nutrients inbalances • Nutrients loss • Organic matter decline • Drought • Agro-chemicals pollution • Industrial wastes contamination

7. Nutrients inbalances and losses

8. Nutrients inbalances:the inbalances between nutrient availablity in the soil and crop requirementNutrient losses/decline:the decline in most of the soil nutrient content due to nutrient input < removal

9. Nutrients in the crop tissue Dierolf et al. (2001)

10. Nutrient content of rice straw and grain

11. N K Required nutrient to attain targetted yield Applied Fert N2 Fixation Water irrigation Organic fertilizer or compost Soil Nutrient requriments and sources

12. Factors determining fertilizer application • Crop requirement to form plant tissues • Nutrient availability in the soil • Fertilizer use effisiency (nutrient loss) • Other sources of nutrienteg compost

13. Cause of Nutrient Loss • Leaching • Volatilitation (for N) • Clay fixation (K dan amonium, NH4+) • Al, Fe, and Ca fixation (P) • Soil erosion • Yield removal

14. Organic matter decline • High rate of decomposition (tropical climate) • High dependent on inorganic fertilizer • Straw removal from farm field for other purposes

15. Soil organic carbon of intensified lowland rice areas in Indonesia • 73% low soil organic matter content (<2%), • 23% medium organic matter content (2-3%) • 4% have more than 3% of soil organic matter • due to the intensive weathering process, high rainfall and temperature, land use change, and inappropriate management practices without returning organic matter to the field

16. National policy on rice-self sufficiency Increase rice production by 5% peryear through Rice Production Increase Program (P2BN) 5 Operational strategies of P2BN Increase rice productivity Expand rice harvested area through increased cropping intensity (CI) Increase yield stability Provide price support, farm input subsidies, and credit.

17. STRATEGY TO IMPROVE • RICE PRODUCTIVITY • Improve seed quality • Improve technologies • - Land preparation • - Fertilizer recommendation & application • - Water management • - Pest and disease control • - Post harvest handling • Infrastructure and marketdevelopment • Improved dissemination and • communication of technology • Policy to maintain price stabilization • Research and Development

18. Map of Soil Distribution in Indonesia Dry, alkaline parent material Wet, acid parent material 18

19. Wet areas: Inceptisol, Ultisol, Oxisol Soil parent materials: lack of nutrients Rainfall and leaching: high Soil fertility: marginal Low productivity Susceptibility to erosion Dry areas: Alfisol, Vertisol, Inceptisol Soil parent materials: rich of nutrients Soil fertility: relatively high Medium to high productivity Soil solum: shallow Soil Fertility

20. Soil fertility of lowland areas in Indonesia: • acid soil to alkaline soil • clay mineral 1:1, 2:1, and hydroxide Different in soil management and fertilizer recommendation

21. Current Soil P and K status in intensified lowland rice in Indonesia

23. Lessorn learn from the map Most of the lowland rice soil was saturated with P due to continuous application of P fertilizer for the last 20 year. Over the next 20 years: increasing in soil P status (high soil P status cover 40.6% of total lowland areas) High soil P of lowland areas covered 39% of total lowland areas

24. Rice Fertilizer Recommendation Blanket recommendation (before 1990): - fixed rate - under package Gradually improved based on soil test Balanced fertilization based on soil testing was applied (experiment, on-farm trial, training, socialization) Implementation: - using soil P and K map - soil analysis by paddy soil test kit in the field

25. Criteria of soil P and K status in intensified lowland areas and its fertilizer recommendation 25

26. Phosphorus efficiency based on soil test and blanket recommendation

27. Integrated Plant Nutrient Management In the past: emphasis was on the increased use of fertilizer to increase production Currentapproach: focus on educating farmers to use efficient inorganic fertilizer combined with organic and bio-fertilizer in an integrated manner plant nutrition in future: integrated plant nutrient management for sustainable agriculture

28. Soil organic matter (SOM): maintain sustainability and biodiversity of soil organisms improve soil physical, chemical and biological properties Can be use as an indicator of the sustainability of the soil management system Indicate high soil productivity 28

29. Recommendation To build up or increase soil organic matter in agricultural land, particularly lowland rice soil, the management should focus and emphasize on the application of organic matter from any sources INTEGRATED PLANT NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT

30. Response of lowland rice to straw and NPK fertilizer during seven consecutive seasons on Vertisol of Ngawi, East Java

31. Effect of straw and potassium application on the yield and efficiency of N and P fertilizer during six consecutive seasons in West Java 80 80 70 70 60 60 50 50 kg yield/kg P2O5 kg yield/kg K2O 40 40 30 30 20 20 10 10 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 season season NP NPK NP+Straw Straw is the only organic material available in significant quantities to rice farmers. About 40% of nitrogen, 30-40% of phosphorus, 80-85% of potassium and 40-50% of sulphur taken up by rice remain in vegetative plant parts at maturity

32. Application of Sesbania rostrata and inorganic fertilizer for lowland rice on Vertisol, East Java Sesbania rostrata is a legume or green manure crop with nodules on the stem, which is suitable to be grown on flooded soil or lowland soil. At 45 days after planting, these plants were cut off and incorporated into the soil.

33. Effect of integrated organic and inorganic fertilizer management on the yield of lowland rice in Sumatra, Indonesia

34. Effect of P solubilizing bacteria on the rice yield and availability of soil P Inoculation of phosphorus solubilizing bacteria consisting of Pseudomonas spp. (C2K, AG6, TN 13) are comparable to application of 100 kg SP-36/ha on a lowland soil with high P-soil status improved availability of soil P under flooded condition

35. New challenge: Organic Farming The sustainable agriculture farming system can be developed through two approaches: (1) agricultural development at high productivity (2) agricultural development at low productivity. Agricultural development at high productivity can be achieved through high input technology (chemical pesticide and fertilizer) to maintain a high level of crop production

36. Sustainable agriculture at low productivity: - encourages and enhances the biological cycles within the farming system - involving micro organisms, soil flora and fauna, plants and animals to maintain and increase long term fertility of soils from on farm inputs Organic farming technology has similarity with sustainable agriculture at low productivity Long-term experiments on the organic farming system in Europe proved that the crop productivity was low at the beginning of the farming, but will increase after the new soil and plant equilibrium was achieved

37. Principle of organic production The principles of organic production by National Indonesian Standard (SNI) include: producing food of high quality in sufficient quantity encouraging biological cycles at the level of production on the farm maintaining and increasing long term soil fertility and biological activity in the soil by: (a) rotation with legumes or cover crops (b) returning livestock or other organic manure produced on the farm (c) managing crop residues from the farm (d) limited use of non-synthetic fertilizer to correct soil limiting factors for a certain time approved by the authority (4) minimize all forms of pollution

38. Current situation of organic farming in Indonesia Organic farming just began last 3-5 years, the old one was started in West Java in 1983 This technology was introduced after we learned that the green revolution technology has some negative impacts on the environment and human health Adoption of the principle and regulation of organic farming system have been started since 2002, when the Agriculture Department established the “Go Organic 2010” program This program states that by the year 2010, the Indonesian farmers can produce healthy organic food for domestic consumption and for export to other countries

39. Prospect of organic farming As a tropical country blessed with high potential biodiversity and natural resources, Indonesia has a great opportunity to develop the organic farming system in the agricultural sector Land suitability for development of organic farming areas should be identified

40. In order to enhance the implementation of the “Go Organic 2010”, the government: has appointed the Center of Standardization and Accreditation, Agriculture Department as a Competent Authority on organic farming in Indonesia provides a Task Force for organic food consisting of the government, private sector, NGO, Food and Medicine Department, National Standard Agency, university, and producers giving the task force a mandate to prepare: (a) system for monitoring and certification, (b) labeling of organic products, and (c) a national list allowed as an input factor for organic farming gives priority for research and development on organic farming technology promotes dissemination and socialization of healthy organic food

41. Conclusion The government regulation program concerning production, distribution and fertilizer recommendation to increase crop and soil productivity is very important Balanced fertilization by implementation of prescription farming is the key factor to increase efficiency of inorganic fertilizer particularly in lowland rice areas.

42. The use of only mineral fertilizers may in the long run cause decline in the rice yield, inefficiency of fertilizer use, and soil and environmental degradation The integrated plant nutrient management approach based on prescription farming, consisting of a combination of inorganic, organic and bio-fertilizers is the appropriate method to sustain high productivity of soils in Indonesia.

43. The organic farming system has a great opportunity to develop in Indonesia through the mass program “Go Organic 2010”. The national standard for organic food production has been established in 2002 and is called SNI 01-6729-2002. To enhance the development of organic farming in Indonesia, dissemination of technologies and information, and research and development programs should be intensified