Recommendation of Nitrogen Topdressing Rates at Panicle Initiation Stage of Rice Using Canopy Reflectance

The response of grain yield(GY) and milled-rice protein content(PC) to crop growth status and nitrogen(N) rates at panicle initiation stage(PIS) is critical information for prescribing topdress N rate at PIS(Npi) for target GY and PC. Three split-split-plot experiments including various N treatments and rice cultivars were conducted in Experimental Farm, Seoul National University, Korea in 2003-2005. Shoot N density(SND, g N in shoot $m^{-2}$) and canopy reflectance were measured before N application at PIS, and GY, PC, and SND were measured at harvest. Data from the first two years(2003-2004) were used for calibrating the predictive models for GY, PC, and SND accumulated from PIS to harvest using SND at PIS and Npi by multiple stepwise regression. After that the calibrated models were used for calculating N requirement at PIS for each of nine plots based on the target PC of 6.8% and the values of SND at PIS that was estimated by canopy reflectance method in the 2005 experiment. The result showed that SND at PIS in combination with Npi were successful to predict GY, PC, and SND from PIS to harvest in the calibration dataset with the coefficients of determination ($R^2$) of 0.87, 0.73, and 0.82 and the relative errors in prediction(REP, %) of 5.5, 4.3, and 21.1%, respectively. In general, the calibrated model equations showed a little lower performance in calculating GY, PC, and SND in the validation dataset(data from 2005) but REP ranging from 3.3% for PC and 13.9% for SND accumulated from PIS to harvest was acceptable. Nitrogen rate prescription treatment(PRT) for the target PC of 6.8% reduced the coefficient of variation in PC from 4.6% in the fixed rate treatment(FRT, 3.6g N $m^{-2}$) to 2.4% in PRT and the average PC of PRT was 6.78%, being very close to the target PC of 6.8%. In addition, PRT increased GY by 42.1 $gm^{-2}$ while Npi increased by 0.63 $gm^{-2}$ compared to the FRT, resulting in high agronomic N-use efficiency of 68.8 kg grain from additional kg N. The high agronomic N-use efficiency might have resulted from the higher response of grain yield to the applied N in the prescribed N rate treatment because N rate was prescribed based on the crop growth and N status of each plot.