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Silicon and Nitrogen Use Efficiency in Aerobic Rice

Yogendra N.D University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, INDIA

5th International Conference on Silicon in Agriculture,

13th 18th September 2011, Bijing, China.

INTRODUCTION
Rice occupies a pivotal place in Indias national food and livelihood security system. Rice - 44.7 million hectares, and contributes>40% food production,

of

the

total

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0

1996-01

2001-06

2006-07

1996-01
100
Production in MT

2001-06

2006-07

Area in Mha

50

0 Rice 85 85.72 92.76

Rice

% Share of TFG 23.40% 23.10% 23.52%

Wheat

% Share of TFG 14.00% 14.10% 14.40%

% Share of TFG 42.40% 42.50% 42.90%

Wheat 70.61 69.73 74.89

% Share of TFG 35.30% 34.60% 35.70%

1996-01 2001-06 2006-07

1996-01 2001-06 2006-07

44.31 42.85 44.62

26.67 26.2 28.03

Rice and silicon


Rice is a silicon accumulator plant Silicon (Si) is agronomically essential element (Ma et al., 2001) Quassi essential element (Epstein 2005) Four Si in Agriculture Conferences- Florida, Japan & Brazil South Africa Silicon nutrition in Indian rice farming has not received proper attention

Rice yields in intensively cultivated areas are either decelerating/stagnating/declining in the post green revolution era

Imbalance in fertilizer use Soil degradation Type of cropping system practiced Lack of suitable rice genotypesdisease and drought

Reasons for Silicon deficiency: Old and degraded soils in temperate or subtropical climates.
Organic soils with small mineral Si reserves Highly weathered and leached tropical soils in rainfed lowland

and upland areas

Growing

rice crop continuously without fertilizers and rice straw to soil.

addition

of

silicon

Silicon management:
1. Natural inputs : Irrigation water contains
certain amount of silicon.

2. Straw management

: Incorporation of rice straw

after the harvest of crop reduces Si deficiency in the long run.

3. Fertilizer Management : Avoid applying excessive and


unbalanced amounts of N fertilizer.

4. Post harvest measures : Recycling of rice hulls/rice hull


ash reduces the silicon deficiency to some extent.

Nitrogen management:

Physico-chemical properties of soil


Parameter Kharif 08 Kharif 09

pH (1:2.5 water)
Organic Carbon(%) Available Phosphorus (kg ha-1) Available Potassium (kg ha-1) Available Silicon (kg ha-1) Exchangeable Calcium (meq 100g-1) Exchangeable Magnesium (meq 100g-1)

Elemental composition of calcium silicate


Composition Amount (%) 30.0 9.0 12.0

Calcium Magnesium Silicon

Manganese
Aluminum Iron Sulfur Titanium Nickel Chromium Molybdenum Boron Copper

1.0
3.0 4.0 0.2 0.5 0.04 0.02 0.00 - 0.02 0.02 - 0.14 0.05 - 0.33

Source: Excel Minerals, USA

Treatment Details
T1 : Control (-N, P & K) T2 : 60 kg N ha-1 (No basal LCC-3) T3 : 90 kg N ha-1 (Urea 30 kg N ha-1 as basal) T4 : 100 kg N ha-1 (RDF)

T1 : Control (-N, P & K)


T2 : 100 kg N ha-1 (RDF) T3 : T2 + CaSiO3 @ 2t ha-1

T4 : T3 + Basal 30 kg N ha-1 (LCC-3)


T5 : T4 + CaSiO3 @ 2t ha-1

Effect of Si and N on grain, straw and chaffy grain yield of aerobic rice during Kharif 2008
Treatments T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 Mean SEM Main (N) Sub (Si) Main (N) Sub (Si) Interaction N x Si
T1: 0 kg N ha-1 (Control)

Grain yield (kg ha-1) -Si 3234.8 4728.7 4904.4 4723.0 4686.3 4410.8 4448.0 +Si 3685.2 5591.5 5645.4 5326.9 5117.4 4519.7 4981.0 33.5 12.5 182.6 115.6 143.9 Mean 3460.0 5160.1 5274.9 5025.0 4901.9 4465.3

Straw yield (kg ha-1) - Si 4756.1 5335.9 5547.2 6974.8 5114.7 6154.9 5647.3 + Si 5106.2 5822.1 5805.3 7075.8 5798.6 6212.0 5970.0 29.6 10.3 161.7 94.9 130.8 Mean 4681.1 5579.0 5676.2 7025.3 5456.6 6183.5

Chaffy grain (kg ha-1) -Si 36.6 61.0 70.3 77.5 81.3 79.2 67.6 +Si 32.9 59.9 46.5 67.8 49.1 58. 0 52.5 0.7 0.4 4.4 4.3 5.0 Mean 34.7 60.5 58.4 72.7 65.2 68.9

CD (5%)

T2: 60 kg N ha-1 (No basal + LCC-3) T3: 90 kg N ha-1 (Urea at 30 kg N ha-1 + LCC-3) T4: 90 kg N ha-1 (DAP at 30 kg N ha-1 + LCC-3) T5: 90 kg N ha-1 (Ca (NO3)2 at 30 kg N ha-1 + LCC-3) T6: 100 kg N ha-1 as Urea (RDF)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
1. HARSCO INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED, HYDRABAD (A.P), INDIA.

2.

EXCEL MINERALS, USA

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