Apply 10 t/ha green azolla as green manure at the time of first weeding under middle Gujarat conditions. In south Gujarat conditions, broadcast 1 tonnes green azolla after 1 week of transplanting and buried it into soil (after growth) at the time of first weeding or broadcast 10 kg blue green algae/ha before transplanting, if azolla is not available.

In reclaimed alkaline saline soils, only 150 kg N/ha is applied in three installment. Apply first installment of 75 kg N/ha after puddling and drain out the water from field. Second installment of 37.5 kg N/ha is applied 3 weeks after transplanting and remaining 37.5 kg N/ha is applied at 6 weeks after transplanting. In reclaimed alkaline saline soils, salt resistance variety SLR - 51214 should be used. Apply nitrogenous fertilizers in form of Urea or ammonium sulphate.

Nitrogenous fertilizers are highly soluble and in mobile form so easily lost by leaching, volatilization and denitrification. The efficiency of chemical fertilizers N is 30-35 % in rice, 45-60 % in wheat, 18-63 % in maize and 18-35 % in cotton. These figures indicate that about 50 to 75 % of the applied N to the soil never became available to the crop plants. Therefore, it is always desirable to place the nitrogenous fertilizers at a depth of 10 cm i.e. into the reduced Zone so that the loss of N through volatilization can be reduced. The highest rate of volatilization occurs during the first 2-3 days of fertilizers application.

Secondly, the low efficiency is through losses due to leaching of nitrate nitrogen with the heavy irrigation on sandy soils or through denitrification in the form of elemental N in water logged conditions. To overcome this loss of N, ammonium sulphate or Neem Coated Urea (NCU) or Urea Super Granules (USG) should be preferred over application of urea alone. To reduce denitrfication losses, ammonical N should only be given to soils having low pH ( 4).

In case of mid-late varieties of rice, apply 60 kg granulated compost per hectare at the time of transplanting. Procedure for making granulated compost is as under.

Dissolved 11 kg of urea in 30 liters of water and add 100 cc diluted HCL acid (commercial) for the prevention of reduction of urea. Then add 89 kg dry and well decomposed FYM and thoroughly mix in this solution and dry it under shade. Thus above-prepared 5 % granulated compost may be used on next day.

Generally nitrogenous fertilizers are applied in the form of ammonium sulphate or urea. Before application of N fertilizers in the form of urea, the water is drained away from the field and again the field is filled in with water after 2-3 days of fertilizer applied.

In Kyari land, phosphoric fertilizer is recommended to apply in slurry form @ 20 kg/ha in a proportion of 1:2:3 for single super phosphate soil and water. After preparing the above slurry, keep it as such for about one hour. Dip the seedling roots in this slurry before transplanting.

Zn deficiency
Usually Zn deficiency is observed in salty and sandy soils,. So apply 25 kg ZnSO4 in the soil before transplanting or if it is observed in the field crop, spray 0.5 % ZnSO4 solution on leaves.