The study on the economic fertilizer requirement for paddy production on a Malaysian soil

This initial exercisewas to determine the paddy yield response functions with fertilizer application on a Malaysian soil in order to incorporate the economic consideration of the Malaysian fertilizer cost and paddy price variations. The yield response curve for each fertilizer could be described by a quadratic equation and this can be used in fertilizer rate prediction. The fluctuating fertilizer costs and paddy prices were used to estimate the economic fertilizer rate. It was found that the economic fertilizer rate for each N, P, K fertilizers without subsidy were 130.96kg/ha, 41.57kg/ha, 64.20kg/ha respectively for the chosen soil types. The simulation revealed that the economic fertilizer rate and maximum profit were influenced by the current fertilizer cost and price of paddy with the assumption that subsidies were not given for the fertilizers.Keywords: optimum fertilizer requirement; economic; paddy production; maximum profi