The timeliness and quality of land preparation are critical to ricenproduction. NERICA varieties are no exception. Good soil tillage practices generally enhance efficient fertilizer-use, soil porosity and aeration and then have positive impacts during germination, seedling emergence and stand establishment stages of plant growth, in addition to weed control.
Oikeh, O. Diatta, S. Tsuboi, T. Berhe, T. 2008. NERICA: the New Rice for Africa - a Compendium. Module 6.