| Author | Phung Duc Luc |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the
degree of Master of Science in
Agricultural Systems and Engineering, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Effects of different soil moisture regimes and time of silicon (Si) application on growth, yield and Si uptake of RD57, a new local rice variety was investigated in a pot experiment. A 3 × 5 fractionated factorial with three soil moisture regimes (field capacity [ 100% FC] - control; 80% FC; and 60% FC) and four different time of Si application at the rate of 300 kg/ha along with one control treatment (no Si -control; full dose of Si as basal; 50% as basal + 50% at panicle initiation (PI); 25% as basal + 75% at PI; and 25% as basal + 50% at PI + 25% at heading date) and was subjected into a completely randomized design (CRD) with three replicates. At maturity, growth parameters, yield and yield components, and Si content in dry shoots of the variety was investigated. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) of the collected data was carried out and the Fisher’s least significant difference (LSD) test was used to detect significant differences among treatments’ means.
The results revealed that the water deficit conditions at 80% and 60% FC significantly reduced growth and yield performance of RD57 (p < 0.001). The mid water deficit regime of 80% FC caused a decline in grain yield by half compared with the control (100% FC), while the plants suffering from the serve water deficit regime of 60% FC produced almost no grains, due to a significant decline found in number of panicle per plant, panicle length, number of spikelet per panicle, and a decrease in fertility percentage. Both 80% and 60% FC regimes decreased Si accumulation within rice shoot by 25 and 57%, relatively, compared with the control regime. Si fertilization was observed to consistently improve shoot and root growth, and some of the yield components including number of panicle per plant, number of spikelet per panicle, number of filled grain per panicle, despite that their effects were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). The Si content, however, was highly significantly influenced by the Si treatments (p < 0.01), in which the plants fertilized with Si accumulated higher Si within shoot over the plants untreated with supplemental Si fertilization, regardless of the timing of application. There were strong positive correlations between Si accumulation with the growth parameters and grain yield of RD57, suggesting that an increase in Si uptake due to Si fertilization could significantly lead to improvement in biomass production and yield of the local rice variety. |
| Year | 2016 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources (Former title: Department of Food Agriculture, and BioResources (DFAB)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Agricultural and Aquatic Systems(AS) |
| Chairperson(s) | Datta, Avishek; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Shrestha, Rajendra Prasad;Shrestha, Sangam; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst DAAD, Germany – AIT Fellowship; |