What is a Leaf Colour Chart (LCC)?
LCC is basically a four inch (previously it was 6 inch) plastic colour device having four separate strips of colour in it. The colour gradients are from light yellowish green to dark green. The first leaf colour chart was developed in Japan. Chinese researchers developed a much improved LCC and calibrated it for indica, japonica and hybrid rice. This chart later became a model for the LCC currently distributed by IRRI’s Crop Resources and Management Network (CREMNET). The colour chart is an ideal tool to optimise nitrogen use in rice cropping irrespective of nitrogen source applied — organic or inorganic. The instrument is being increasingly used in many Asian countries like Japan, Vietnam, China, Philippines and India to determine the real time based N application. The strip 2 (of the modified version) is yellow, located on the left most corner of the LCC and the strip 5 is deep green on the right most corner. The strips in between (numbering 3-4) are green in varying proportion, wit
