Impact of Organic Amendment with Alternate Wetting and Drying Irrigation on Rice Yield, Water Use Efficiency and Physicochemical Properties of Soil

Ahmad Numery Ashfaqul Haque,Adibah Mohd Amin,Muhammad Firdaus Sulaiman,Md Kamal Uddin,Mahmud Hossain,Azharuddin Abd Aziz,Mehnaz Mosharrof

doi:10.3390/agronomy11081529

Abstract

A pot experiment was executed to investigate the impact of biochar and compost with water-saving irrigation on the rice yield, water use efficiency, and physicochemical properties of soil. Two irrigation regimes—namely alternate wetting and drying (AWD) and continuous flooding (CF)—and four types of organic amendments (OA)—namely rice husk biochar (RHB), oil palm empty fruit bunch biochar (EFBB), compost and a control—were applied to evaluate their effects. Under the AWD irrigation regime, the maximum grain was produced by RHB (241.12 g), whereas under the same organic amendments, both AWD and CF produced a similar grain yield. Under the same organic amendment, a significantly higher water use efficiency (WUE) was observed from the AWD irrigation with RHB (6.30 g L−1) and EFBB (5.80 g L−1). Within the same irrigation regime, soil pH, cation exchange capacity, total carbon, total nitrogen and available phosphorus were enhanced due to the incorporation of biochar and compost, while higher soil exchangeable potassium was observed under CF irrigation for all treatments. RHB and EFBB significantly reduced the soil bulk density (up to 20.70%) and increased porosity (up to 16.70%) under both irrigation regimes. The results imply that the use of biochar with AWD irrigation could enhance the nutrient uptake and physicochemical properties of soil and allow rice to produce a greater yield with less water consumption.

Highlights

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a major staple food for half of the world’s population, the majority of whom live in developing nations, and rice requires up about 11% of the world’s agricultural land and is positioned second in terms of area coverage [1]
Plants grown with two irrigation regimes—AWD and continuous flooding (CF)—did not show a remarkable increase in grain, straw and the biological yield of rice with the same organic amendments (Table 1), sincethe addition of rice husk biochar (RHB), empty fruit bunch biochar (EFBB) and compost increased grain yield upto 14% to 15%under both irrigation regimes
The alternate wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation regime is preferred over the continuous flooding (CF) for sustainable rice production as it produces a similar yield with improved water use efficiency

Summary

Introduction

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a major staple food for half of the world’s population, the majority of whom live in developing nations, and rice requires up about 11% of the world’s agricultural land and is positioned second in terms of area coverage [1]. Due to high population growth, expanding urbanization and industrialization, resource depletion and environmental pollution have resulted in limited sources for irrigation water [4,5]. Under this increasing global situation of water crisis, several serious challenges are facing global agriculture in the attempt to provide sufficient food for the growing population [6]. Alternate wetting and drying (AWD) is an efficient approach to save irrigation water for sustainable rice production by the periodic drying and flooding of rice fields [7]. To cope with these drawbacks of AWD, the incorporation of organic amendments in the soil has a great potential for improving soil physicochemical properties and moisture retention

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Methods

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Discussion

Conclusion