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Nepal is a major rice producer of South Asia, feeding more than 20 million people of the country and abroad. However, productivity and profitability of rice are low in Nepal compared to other regional countries. Large yield gaps exist between attainable and farmers' yields and nutrient management is identified as one of the major reasons. Nutrient Expert® (NE), a decision-support tool based on site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) principles has been validated and applied in many countries of Asia and Africa as new recommendation protocol for nutrient management in selected crops, including rice. Present study used NE® Rice as nutrient management protocol in farmers' fields across Terai and mid-hills regions of Nepal during 2014–2018. The study revealed that NE-based fertilizer recommendations resulted in increase in yield over 2.0 t.ha−1 (p ≤ 0.05) and double the profits compared to existing blanket fertilizer recommendation, and farmers' fertilizer practice. Due to large variations in slope, altitude, soil, and management, performance of NE® varied across locations. Its performance was better in Terai due to flat lands and less variations in soil types, compared to sloping lands and varied soils of mid-hills. NE tool provided adequate guidance to apply the required rate of fertilizer that matched the crop requirement and soil nutrient supply of each farmer fields. The novelty of the study is introduction of a dynamic fertilizer recommendation approach that can supplement the existing static blanket recommendation system. We conclude that Nutrient Expert® - Rice can be considered as an effective tool for nutrient recommendation for rice in Nepal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

System of Rice Intensification (SRI) was evaluated for the variety Hardinath-1 under nutrient omission treatment (-N, -P, -K, -Zn, -B and +All) through field experiment conducted in randomized complete block design (RCBD) with six treatments and four replications during spring season of 2018 at agriculture field of Sailaja Acharya Memorial Polytechnic, Siswani Jahada, Morang. The highest grain (4.62 t/ha) and straw yields (7.75 t/ha) were obtained from the fully fertilized plot (i. e.+All treatments) which might be due to application of all of the major nutrients in sufficient amount (i. e. 150 : 45 : 45 : 20 : 5 N : P : K : Zn : B kg/ha) along with following SRI principles. Omitting the major nutrients showed significantly lesser growth and yield parameters of rice. The P omitted treatment showed significantly higher sterility percentage (23.74) as P had major role on grain filling and development. The nutrients omission treatment also produced significant effect on plant uptake of N, P, K, Zn and B. Significantly higher uptake of N (76.73 kg/ha), P (38.28 kg/ha), K (52.41 kg/ha), Zn (0.086 kg/ha) and B (0.022 kg/ha) was obtained from fully fertilized plot. Based on plant uptake of nutrient on omission plot, native N, P, K, Zn and B supplying capacity of the soil at research plot was found to be 23.51, 25.94, 37.59, 0.075 and 0.019 kg/ha, respectively. The recovery efficiency of applied N, P, K, Zn and B was found to be 35.48, 5.7, 32.93, 0.06 and 0.06%, respectively. Owing to native nutrient supplying capacity of the soil at the research site, N, P, K, Zn and B required to obtain the target yield of 5 t/ha was found 139.5 kg N/ha, 45.22 kg P/ha, 50.8 kg K/ha, 12.1 kg Zn/ha and 2.6 kg B/ha, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]