Abstract
<p>Si fertilizer was never used in rice cultivation by farmers in Indonesia. To evaluate the effect of Si application on blast disease, plant morphologies, and stomata formation on rice plant, a field experiment was conducted in West Java, Indonesia. Two treatments, Si+ (with 1000 kg ha<sup>-1 </sup>of silica gel) and Si- (without Si application) were set in a randomized complete block design. The results showed that Si application in soil with high available Si 426 mg SiO<sub>2</sub> kg<sup>-1</sup> significantly reduce leaf (p &lt; 0.01) and neck (p &lt; 0.05) blast disease infection and increased stomata density (p &lt; 0.01). Si- had severer leaf blast infection than Si+ which could reach up to score 4 and 5. Si deposited on the tissue surface acts as a physical barrier by thickening the Si layer in cuticle which could decrease the number of blast lessions on leaf blades by limiting hypa penetration and invasion. Recently there was no report to prove whether Si deposition improves or changes the stomata density. The results confirmed that Si application have the potential of improving rice growth and yield through the increase of resistance to blast infection and increment in stomata density although they did not result in the yield increment in the present study.</p>
Highlights
Indonesia is a major producer of agricultural products in the world
We believe that Si deposited on the tissue surface acts as a physical barrier by thickening the Si layer in the cuticle known as Si-cuticle double layer which could decrease the number of blast lessions on leaf blades and improved stomata control (Yoshida, 1965; Datnoff & Rodrigues, 2005)
Beerling and Woodward (1997) stated that plants with high stomatal density tend to have smaller size of stomata. This condition was observed in the experiment with plant growth increasing with increase in stomata density while the stomata length decreases. These results demonstrate that Si application showed positive effect on supressing leaf and neck blast disease attack on Ciherang rice variety
Summary
Indonesia is a major producer of agricultural products in the world. The major food crops, ranked by area harvested are rice, corn, cassava, soybeans and peanuts (Ministry of Agriculture, 2015). In Indonesia, rice cultivation is rise up to three crop rotation per year with an average rice productivity of about 5.3 ton ha-1. Nowdays, known that the rice productivity in Indonesia has fluctuated and stagnated over the past decade (FAOSTAT 2005-2015). This situation might be because of several factors such as changes climatic factors and the decline in soil fertility (Husnain, 2009). Declining crop yields are strongly related to soil quality degradation, nutrient depletion (Roy et al, 2003). Apart from nutrient depletion, the occurrence of plant disease plays a role on decreasing yield
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