Bangladesh Agron. J. 2022, 25(2): 67-72 GRAIN, YIELD AND QUALITY OF TRANSPLANT AMAN RICE AND SOIL NUTRIENTS STATUS WITH APPLICATION OF FERTILIZERS AND GREEN MANURES Z. Nasrin1, M.F. Karim2, M.J. Ullah2, M.A. Siddiquee3 and M.A. Khan2 1National Consultant, FAO-BD, 2Department of Agronomy, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka- 1207, Bangladesh, 3Chief Scientific Officer, Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI), Joydebpur, Gazipur-1701, Bangladesh. Corresponding Email: pdmfkarim@yahoo.com (Received: 27 August 2022, Accepted: 06 January 2023) Keywords: Mimosa, dhaincha, green manure, grain yield, grain quality, soil nutrient status Abstract A field experiment was conducted at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during 2014 on transplant aman rice var. BR11 (Mukta) under different levels of chemical fertilizers and green manures to evaluate its grain yield, grain quality and soil fertility status with incorporation of green manures. The experiment was carried out in a split- plot design with three replications. The level of fertilizers (0, 100, 75, 50% of recommended dose, RFD) was placed in main -plot and levels of green manures management (0, 5 and 10 t ha-1 each Mimosa invisa (Lajjaboti) and Sesbania spp. (Dhaincha) in sub-plot. Recommended dose of fertilizers of 83N, 21P, 37K, 11S and 1.5 Zn kg ha-1, were applied in the form of urea, triple super phosphate (TSP), muriate of potash (MoP), gypsum and zinc sulfate, respectively. Sixty-day old Mimosa invisa and Sesbania spp. were in - vitro incorporated before aman transplantation. Combined application of 75% RFD along with Mimosa invisa @ 10 t ha-1 was proved to be the best management in producing higher grain yield (7.25 t ha-1) and that was at par with treatment 50% RFD plus Mimosa invisa @ 10 t ha-1. Quality of grain was increased markedly in respect of amylose, carbohydrate, and protein as well. Furthermore, the treatment improved soil nutrient status in respect of organic matter, nitrogen, sulfur and Zn over no incorporations of green manures. So, addition of green manure like Mimosa invisa could cut fertilizer cost by 25-50%. Introduction In Bangladesh rice covering 11.53 million hectares (BBS, 2011) where transplant Aman rice occupied 55.3 % of total rice area (BBS, 2018). Continuous rice cultivation could be a threat for soil health concern. Sulphur and zinc unavailability is resultant effect of continuous cultivation of aus, aman and boro (Biswas and Naher, 2019). In addition, imbalance use of fertilizers, limited or no use of crop residues or green manure into the soil thus triggered down the soil nutrient status of Bangladesh. Recently, Mg, B and Mo are also reported to be limiting in many areas (Rahman et al., 2021). On the other hand, imbalance use of chemical fertilizers is further detrimental on the availability of soil nutrients for expression of crop production potentiality. It was notified that sustainable crops production cannot be maintained by using either alone chemical fertilizers or organic manure (Moe et al., 2017). So, use of green manure/organic manure along with inorganic fertilizers is mostly scientific in improving soil fertility followed by sustainable crop production from integrated crop management (ICM) point of view. Dhaincha 68 Nasrin et al. (Sesbania spp.) is well known plant for conventional soil improving management in Bangladesh (Sarwar et al., 2017). Mimosa invisa (Lajjaboti) is an emerging green manuring legume weed is being evaluated for its potentiality towards improving of soil health and quality crop yield indeed over dhaincha (Mishra et al., 2011). In Bangladesh, study on the performance of Mimosa as a green manure is lacking or little in practice. So, the potentiality of this novel green manure is to be tested in Bangladesh crop fields. Hence, the study of influence of Mimosa invisa and Sesbania spp. as green manure along with different fertilizers levels for improving T. aman rice grain yield in general and soil improvement in particular. Materials and Methods An experiment was conducted at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University during 2014 aman season (July – November) to evaluate the effect of green manures on transplant aman under different levels of fertilizers. The test crop was rice var. BR11 (Mukta). The experiment was carried out in a split- plot design with three replications. The level of fertilizers (0, 100, 75, 50% of recommended dose, RFD) was placed in main -plot and levels of green manures management (0, 5 and 10 t ha-1 each Mimosa invisa and Sesbania spp. in sub-plot. The treatment comprised of fertilizer levels (4); F0 = No fertilizers (control), F1 = Recommended dose (N = 83 kg ha-1, P = 21 kg ha-1, K = 37 kg ha-1, S = 11 kg ha-1, Zn = 1.5 kg ha-1), F2 = 75% of the recommended dose, F3 = 50% recommended dose in main plot. Green manures had 5 levels viz. G0 = No green manure (control), G1 = Mimosa invisa at 5 t ha-1, G2 = Mimosa invisa at 10 t ha-1, G3 = Sesbania spp. at 5 t ha-1, G4 = Sesbania spp. at 10 t ha-1 were considered in sub plot. Sixty-day old Mimosa invisa and Sesbania spp. were in - vitro incorporated before aman transplantation. The data on grain yield, grain quality and soil health components were recorded. Grain quality analysis was done at Grain Quality and Nutrition Division, laboratory of BRRI, Gazipur-1701 following National Institute of Nutrition, NIN (1976). Soil health quality was determined following protocol of Jackson (1962), Page et al. (1982), Olsen et al. (1954) and Black (1965). The data collected were analyzed statistically using MSTAT- C software and mean differences of treatments were adjudged with Least Significant Difference (LSD) test (Gomez and Gomez, 1984). Results and Discussion Combined effect of fertilizer and green manure levels on grain yield of rice Results revealed that grain yield was varied from 3.20 to 7.25 t ha-1 as observed with combination effect of different levels of fertilizer and green manure. The yield advantage due to F2G2 was 126.57% over control. This treatment had significantly higher grain yield (7.25 t ha-1) but followed by F3G2 (6.60 t ha-1), F1G1 (6.57 t ha-1), F2G4 (6.21 t ha-1) and F3G3 (6.18 t ha-1). The control plot gave the lowest yield (3.20 t ha-1) (Table 1). The maximum yield was attributed due to increased effective tillers plant-1, panicle length, grains panicle-1 and 1000-grain weight. This might be due to balanced availability of nutrients from the fertilizers and green manures combination. The combined effect of fertilizers and green manures was found positive for increasing different yield contributing traits and yield as reflected in different reports opined by rice scientists (Islam et al., 2015; Abedin et al., 1999; Apostol, 1989; Hoque, 1999). Combined effect of fertilizer and green manure levels on biochemical parameters of rice grain Significantly variations in grain quality parameters were obtained with different combined treatments (Table 2). The grain moisture, amylose, protein and carbohydrate content ranged Grain, Yield and Quality of Transplant Aman Rice and Soil Nutrients Status with Application 69 between 9.20 - 10.70, 23.00 - 27.10, 6.50 - 8.80 and 71.30 - 82.10 % in different treatments. Carbohydrate and protein constituted about 88% of the total grain weight. Table 1. Combined effect of different levels of fertilizers and green manures on grain yield of transplant aman rice Treatment combinations Grain yield (t ha-1) Yield advantage over control (%) F0G0 3.20 h - F0G1 4.56 fg 42.50 F0G2 4.88 e-g 52.50 F0G3 4.32 g 35.00 F0G4 4.90 e-g 53.12 F1G0 5.20 d-g 62.50 F1G1 6.57 a-c 105.31 F1G2 6.12 b-d 91.25 F1G3 5.86 b-e 83.13 F1G4 5.50 c-f 71.90 F2G0 4.73 fg 47.81 F2G1 5.96 b-e 86.25 F2G2 7.25 a 126.57 F2G3 5.54 b-f 73.13 F2G4 6.21 a-d 94.06 F3G0 4.71 fg 47.19 F3G1 5.95 b-e 86.00 F3G2 6.60 ab 106.25 F3G3 6.18 a-d 93.13 F3G4 5.31 d-g 65.93 LSD(0.05) 1.09 - CV (%) 12.00 - F0 = No fertilizers (control) F1 = Recommended dose F2 = 75% of the recommended dose F3 = 50% of the recommended dose G0 = No green manures (control) G1 = Mimosa invisa at 5 t ha-1 G2 = Mimosa invisa at 10 t ha-1 G3 = Sesbania spp. at 5 t ha-1 G4 = Sesbania spp. at 10 t ha-1 Treatments F3G2 and F2G4 had similar moisture content value (10.70%) which was maximum from F1G4 (9.20%). Amylose content elevated maximum (27.10%) in F3G3 and that was minimum in F2G0 (23.00%). Protein content was the highest (8.80%) in F2G2 whereas minimum in F0G0 (6.50%). Carbohydrate was determined greater (82.10%) in F3G4 and lower (71.30%) in F0G0. Likewise, grain yield was marked that reduced fertilizer rate (50-75%) along with either mimosa or sesbania application at 5 or 10 t ha-1, increases all the grain quality parameters. Protein and carbohydrate content was minimum when plant did not get any fertilizer and green manure. The results are in corroborated with findings of Pramanik (2006) when he was concerned in rice grain quality with green manure application. Soil health status with or without green manures application Table 3 showed that incorporation of green manure into soil increased levels of organic matter (0.94 to 1.48%), total nitrogen (0.047 to 0.074%), available sulphur (3.4 to 3.73 ppm) and available zinc (5.63 to 9.13 ppm). This soil quality was improved due to the addition of higher amount of organic matter from green manure into soil. Rahman et al. (2013) and Sarwar et al. (2017) determined improvement of organic matter and total nitrogen content status in soil after incorporation of green manure which is in corroboration with the present findings. The increased level of sulphur indicates that green manures released sufficient sulfur due to its 70 Nasrin et al. decomposition in the soil. Similar results were confirmed by Sanchez (1976) whereas decreased trend was evident in case of soil pH (6.30 to 6.10), available phosphorus (27.93 to 23.93 ppm) and exchangeable potassium (0.20 to 0.13 meq/100g soil). Table 2. Combined effect of different levels of fertilizers and green manures on grain quality of transplant aman rice Treatment combinations Moisture (%) Amylose (%) Protein (%) Carbohydrate (%) F0G0 10.10 de 23.50 k 6.50 h 71.30 h F0G1 10.30 cd 26.10 bc 8.10 def 80.05 fg F0G2 10.50 abc 26.00 c 8.30 bcd 80.10 fg F0G3 10.50 abc 26.40 b 7.80 f 80.60 de F0G4 9.90 ef 23.90 ij 7.90 ef 81.10 bc F1G0 9.70 fg 25.50 d 8.50 abc 80.70 cde F1G1 9.70 fg 23.60 jk 8.30 bcd 80.90 cd F1G2 9.90 ef 24.80 fg 8.60 ab 80.40 ef F1G3 10.40 bc 25.30 de 8.40 bcd 80.10 fg F1G4 9.20 h 23.10 l 8.20 cde 81.50 b F2G0 10.30 cd 23.00 l 8.50 abc 80.10 fg F2G1 10.00 e 24.70 g 8.40 bcd 80.50 def F2G2 9.60 g 26.10 bc 8.80 a 80.80 cde F2G3 9.60 g 24.90 fg 8.50 abc 80.80 cde F2G4 10.70 a 25.10 ef 8.50 abc 79.70 g F3G0 10.10 de 23.80 ijk 7.90 ef 80.90 cd F3G1 10.10 de 24.30 h 8.20 cde 80.60 de F3G2 10.70 a 24.00 hi 8.30 bcd 79.90 g F3G3 10.60 ab 27.10 a 8.20 cde 80.10 fg F3G4 9.90 ef 24.90 fg 6.90 g 82.10 a LSD(0.05) 0.25 0.39 0.30 0.46 CV (%) 1.49 0.94 2.22 0.35 F0 = No fertilizers (control) F1 = Recommended dose F2 = 75% of the recommended dose F3 = 50% of the recommended dose G0 = No green manures (control) G1 = Mimosa invisa at 5 t ha-1 G2 = Mimosa invisa at 10 t ha-1 G3 = Sesbania spp. at 5 t ha-1 G3 = Sesbania spp. at 10 t ha-1 Salahin et al. (2013) opined that incorporation of green manure increases organic acid which ultimately decreases soil pH. Georgantas and Grigoropoulou (2006) observed that pH value less than 6 created a chemical bond between aluminum (Al) and phosphate (known as phosphorus fixation), thus availability of phosphorus may be reduced on soil testing but it is good for use of this nutrient by next crop. Sahu and Nayak (1971) obtained a slight decline of soil K after green manure addition. Table 3. Chemical properties of soil as before and after incorporation of green manures Chemical properties of soil Pre-planting (unincorporated soil) Post-harvest (after incorporation) pH 6.30 6.10 Organic matter (%) 0.94 1.48 Total nitrogen (%) 0.047 0.074 Available phosphorus (ppm) 27.93 23.93 Exchangeable potassium (meq/100g soil) 0.20 0.13 Available sulphur (ppm) 3.40 3.73 Available zinc (ppm) 5.63 9.13 Source: Soil resource development institute (SRDI), Khamarbari, Dhaka Grain, Yield and Quality of Transplant Aman Rice and Soil Nutrients Status with Application 71 Conclusion It could be suggested that incorporation of green manure either Mimosa invisa or Sesbania spp. into the soil has a positive influence in increasing grain yield, grain quality of transplanted aman rice and soil health status as well. 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