Today, the overuse of nitrogen (N) fertilizer and high N loss result in serious nitrate pollution of water and deter the sustainable development of agriculture and social economy. A recently developed site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) can reduce fertilizer-N use while preventing the yield from falling. In this paper, we raise the question of fertilizer N application in rice production through a survey of farmers’ practice of fertilizer N in 18 villages of four provinces. The average rate of N application for rice production in the 18 villages was 190 kg/ha, and 76% to 100% of the total fertilizer N which was applied within 10 days after transplanting resulted in lots of nitrate leached into water. Furthermore, we tested the effect of SSNM through farmer par- ticipatory trial. The SSNM technology maintained rice yields with significantly less fertilizer N and there was no increase in labor input, as much as 31% fertilizer N were saved with the SSNM technology. Finally, the paper points that extension and further research of the SSNM technology should be an effective method to deal with the contradiction of population, food and nitrate non-point pollution of water resource and promote the sustainabil- ity of agriculture. Today, the overuse of nitrogen (N) fertilizer and high N loss result in serious nitrate pollution of water and deter the sustainable development of agriculture and social economy. A recently developed site-specific nutrient management (SSNM) can reduce fertilizer-N use while prevents the yield from falling. In this paper, we raise the question fertilizer N application in rice production through a survey of farmers’ practice of fertilizer N in 18 villages of four provinces. The average rate of N application for rice production in the 18 villages was 190 kg / ha, and 76% to 100% of the total fertilizer N which was applied within 10 days after transplanting resulted in lots of nitrate leached into water. Furthermore, we tested the effect of SSNM through farmer par- ticipatory trial. The SSNM technology maintained rice yields with significantly less fertilizer N and there was no increase in labor input, as much as 31% fertilizer N were saved with the SSNM technology. Finally, the pape r points that extension and further research of the SSNM technology should be an effective method to deal with the contradiction of population, food and nitrate non-point pollution of water resource and promote the sustainabil- ity of agriculture.