New generation urease inhibitor Duromide reduces ammonia losses and increases irrigated rice yield
摘要
Urea is the most used nitrogen (N) fertilizer in rice fields. After fertilization, urea hydrolysis induces significant N losses by ammonia (NH3) volatilization. This demands NH3 mitigation measures such as the application of urease inhibitors. In this context, Duromide is a new urease inhibitor for urea treatment and represents an alternative to the more commonly used inhibitor N-(n-Butyl) thiophosphoric triamide (NBPT). However, an assessment of Duromide’s effectiveness in reducing NH3 losses, increasing N use efficiency, and promoting crop yield is lacking for lowland soils cultivated with irrigated rice. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate N fertilization with urea, urea+NBPT, and urea+Duromide under a 10-day irrigation delay for irrigated rice cropping. The experiment consisted of a 3 × 2 factorial, where factor 1 included the N fertilizers urea, urea+NBPT, and urea+Duromide, and factor 2 comprised two N rates equivalent to 100 and 150 kg N ha-1. In addition, a control treatment without N fertilization was implemented. The experiment was conducted in the 2019/20, 2020/21, and 2021/22 crop seasons in an Albaqualf with low organic matter content. The accumulated NH3 losses were 39% lower in urea+Duromide than in urea, while urea+Duromide and urea+NBPT showed similar values. In addition, using urea+Duromide increased the chlorophyll index relative to urea and urea+NBPT. Similarly, considering average values over three crop seasons, urea+Duromide increased grain yield by 7.3 and 8.8% relative to urea+NBPT and urea, respectively. In conclusion, urea+Duromide is more effective than urea+NBPT in increasing the yield of rice subject to irrigation delay in a lowland soil.