Impact of Different Fertilizer Types on Nutrient Pollutant Loads from Rice Paddy Fields in South Korea
Published 15 July 2016 Environmental Science Irrigation and DrainageJeong-Ryeol Jang,Eun-Mi Hong,Inhong Song,Moon-Seong Kang,Jae-Young Cho,Young-Kweon Cho
Abstract
The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of best management practices (BMPs) on nutrient load reduction from rice paddy fields. Three different fertilizations were considered as the study BMPs: slow-release chemical fertilizer (SC), swine compost manure (CM) and swine liquid manure (LM). Two experiments were conducted independently in fields with sizes of 100 × 40 m in the Saemangeum region. One experiment was conducted at Iksan City to compare conventional chemical fertilizer (CA) with SC in non-point source (NPS) surface runoff, while the other was conducted at Kimje City to compare chemical fertilizer (CB) with CM and LM. Nutrient surface discharge from the SC-treated paddy was 50–55% less than from the CA-treated paddy. The nutrient loads from the LM- and CM-treated fields were 18–48% less than the CB field. This indicates that the SC, CM and LM applications can effectively reduce paddy surface nutrient loads and thus be alternatives to chemical fertilizer application. However, rice yield was slightly decreased (by approximately 7.5%) in the SC-treated field compared to the CA-treated field. With certain compensation measures for the economic losses, the alternative fertilization can be sustainable ways for paddy nutrient load reduction.