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Abstract
The critical nitrogen (N) requirement of rice crops for maximum yields is well known. To overcome acute N deficiency in rice soils as a result of an increasing yield per unit area in the past 50 years of almost three-fold, this element has been usually supplied to the rice crop as the chemical fertilizer ‘urea’. Unfortunately a substantial amount of the urea-N is lost through different mechanisms, causing environmental pollution problems. In principle, utilization of biological nitrogen fixation technology can supplement the use of urea-N, reducing the environmental problems to a considerable extent by improving nitrogen use efficiency. Different biological nitrogen fixation (BNF) systems have different potentials to provide an N supplement. It is necessary to design appropriate strategies to obtain more sustainable N supply to the rice crop. This paper reviews research to evaluate the potential of different BNF systems to supply N for the rice crop, assessing the current information.