A pot experiment was conducted to compare the effects of organic fertilizer and chemical nitrogen fertilizer on crop yield, nitrogen utilization ratio and nitrous oxide (N2O) emission. Urea and four organic fertilizers including human manure, pig manure, cattle manure and chicken manure were applied to rice and millet at ·N 300 kg/hm2 while zero nitrogen treatments were included as control. Urea treatment had the highest rice yield among all the fertilizer treatments while chicken manure treatment had the lowest close to zero nitrogen treatment. As for millet yield, however, human manure treatment had the highest yield, followed by urea and chicken manure. Nitrogen utilization ratios of the organic and chemical fertilizers showed the same order in rice and millet, namely, urea>human manure>chicken manure>cattle manure>pig manure. Nitrous oxide emission reached the first peak one day after the sowing of millet and the transplanting of rice for all the organic and chemical fertilizer treatments, and the peak from rice lasted longer than that from millet due to the difference in water management in the two crops. A second N2O emission peak occurred during the middle season drainage period of rice and lasted about 10 days. Seasonal N2O emission from millet was the highest in human manure treatment and the lowest in cattle manure treatment, while seasonal N2O emission from rice was the highest in urea treatment and the lowest in cattle manure treatment close to zero nitrogen treatment.