Abstract
Nitrogen deficiency frequently occurs at agricultural soil because of NH3 volatilization to the environment which results in low urea-N use efficiency by rice plants. A pot experiment was conducted to assess the synergistic effects of a mixture of rice straw and rice husk biochars (RSRH) on (1) total N, soil exchangeable NH4+, and available NO3−, and (2) uptake of N, P, and K in rice plant. RSRH biochar at 5 and 10 t ha−1 had significantly minimized ammonia volatilization by 33.5% and 40.7%. Further, RSRH biochars also had significantly increased available NH4+, NO3−, available P, and available K in the soil over T1. In line to increase in soil nutrient availability, the rice plant height, tiller number, greenness, and panicle number were increased. This resulted in an increase of nutrient uptake, use efficiency, and dry matter production of the rice plant. RSRH biochar altered the soil environment by minimizing NH3 loss and increasing soil nutrients for efficient plant uptake.
Highlights
Asian countries grow rice (Oryza sativa L.) in a huge acreage, where the production and consumption is the highest
The total loss of NH3 in rice straw and rice husk biochars (RSRH) amended treatments was significantly low compared to the treatments without biochar and treatments with biochar potting media
The dual characteristics of biochar enhanced the adsorption of both negatively and positively charged ions onto its exchange sites [36]. This was further supported by the findings in this study where the treatments amended with RSRH biochar, 5 and 10 t ha−1, retained more NH4 + and NO3 − ions in the soil (Table 5)
Summary
Asian countries grow rice (Oryza sativa L.) in a huge acreage, where the production and consumption is the highest. Rice growers prefer irrigated lowland system for rice production, there are many arising problems in rice fields, such as increased fertilizer application rate due to volatilization or leaching of nitrogen (N), which leads to poor rice crop growth [2,3]. To overcome the deficiency of N in the soil, rice growers tend to add excessive and unreasonable amounts of inorganic fertilizer, which adversely affect the quality of the environment [4]. These practices do waste the fertilizer and degrade nature, but are costly. Immediately upon contact with water, urea hydrolyses and is lost through ammonia (NH3 )
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