Lock lodging: a new technology for ratoon rice cropping

Ratoon cropping of rice could be an important alternative in many agroecosystems, but the practice is not common in the tropics because the yield is low. We developed a novel ratooning technique based on lodging the rice straw in a systematic braided pattern (‘lock lodging’) after the main crop harvest. Lock-lodging was compared with the conventional ratoon method in two experiments under different N timings and levels. In the wet season the lock-lodging technique consistently and substantially outyielded conventional ratooning (2.45t/ha to 1.43 t/ha), with a higher harvest index (36 vs 22 percent), more profuse tillering, higher plant survival, and more synchronous maturity. In the dry season the lock-lodging technique outyieided the conventional mcthod (3.64 t/ha to 2.82 t/ha) with less plant attrition (8.6% hill death vs. 14.8%). The lock-lodging technique reduced main crop costs by 55 percent and earned a net margin of P132/ha/day under pump-irrigated conditions. In gravitationally irrigated ricefields, it reduced production costs by 73 percent and earned a net margin of 12O4/ha/day. Practical methods of lock-lodging were developed for farm-scale use, indicating that the practice could be rapidly integrated into appropriate rice production systems.

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