Large amount of N fertilizer is applied for rice production and most of it is broadcasted in soil surface under traditional farmer practice, resulting in severe N loss via ammonia volatilization and running off, causing economic losses and serious pollution threat to environment. Meanwhile labor shortage is increasingly prominent in rural area of China under the trend of the rapid land transfer, thus, an economic and efficient fertilization method is urgent to be explored and popularized. A 2-year field experiment was conducted in the high N input area around the Taihu lake to compare the effect farmer fertilizer practice (FFP, N fertilizer is broadcasted on soil surface and in 3 times evenly) and root-zone one-time fertilization (RZF, N fertilizer was once applied at 5 cm away and 10 cm depth from rice root) on the rice yield and N use efficiency under the traditional N rate (225 kg/hm²). The results showed that on the condition of without planting rice, the highest content of NH₄⁺-N was appeared at soil surface of FFP. The NH₄⁺-N content decreased both with soil depth increased and with time delayed. While for RZF, the highest NH₄⁺-N content was appeared at the fertilization point, and the remained period of NH₄⁺-N content of RZF was longer than that of FFP. The highest content of NH₄⁺-N of RZF were 542.6, 412.1 and 39.8 mg/kg at 30, 60 and 90 d, respectively. The relative higher NH₄⁺-N concentration of RZF in fertilization site persisted at least 60 days. On the condition of planting rice, RZF significantly increased rice productive tiller number, N content of each organs, N accumulation and N use efficiency comparing with FFP. The highest N accumulation of RZF was 196.7 kg/hm², which increased by 34.9% comparing with FFP. N use efficiency of RZFs were 59.8% (difference method) and 42.5% (¹⁵N labeled method), which increased by 22.6 and 30.6 percent points compared with FFP, respectively. RZF significantly reduced fertilizer N loss from 73.0% (FFP) to 29.7%. Root-zone fertilization can not only prolong the N duration in soil, decrease fertilizer-N losses, but also enhance rice uptake and N use efficiency. In general, RZF is a fertilizer-saved and high-efficient fertilization method, but it is worth developing and applying the special root-zone fertilization machinery.