B P International

Nitrogen is one of the major essential plant nutrients and a key input required for better crop yields and therefore scarcity of nitrogen fertilizer has been a major constraint to rice production particularly in developing countries. Low soil fertility prevalent in farmer’s fields has led to low rice yields and the ever escalating fertilizer prices have made this important input unaffordable to most smallholder farmers who have limited resources for purchasing the required inputs. There has been concerted efforts to identify rice varieties that are tolerant to low soil nitrogen since varieties differ in their ability to impact productivity and some varieties can perform well under low nitrogen input.The Mwea Upland rice (MWUR) varieties have been bred under low fertilizer input environment while other authors have indicated that the New Rice for Africa (NERICA) gives high yields under low input conditions. There is therefore need to identify the superior rice varieties that are adapt...