Benefit of using biodegradable film on rice grain yield and N use efficiency in ground cover rice production system

Compared to basal application of all N fertilizer in GCRPS, split application of N or a basal combination of urea plus manure in conjunction with the use of biodegradable film 1) significantly increased rice grain yield, number of productive tillers, and spikelets per square meter; 2) improved crop growth rate and N uptake rate from panicle initiation to maturity; and 3) significantly increased agronomic efficiency of N fertilizer and recovery efficiency of N in grains. Our results highlight that using biodegradable film instead of standard plastic film allows for split application of fertilizers, which increases yield and N use efficiency as well as significantly reduce environmental pollution with plastic film in GCRPS.