Influences of irrigation, nitrogen and zeolite management on the physicochemical properties of rice

ABSTRACT

The addition of zeolite (Z) to soils is increasingly being recognised as a way to enhance agricultural production and decrease fertilisation requirements and, hence, environmental costs. Meanwhile, the alternate wetting and drying irrigation (AWD) has become widely applied to reduce the water requirements of rice cultivation. However, limited information is available on their impacts on rice’s physicochemical properties. This study investigated an integrated irrigation, nitrogen (N) and Z rice production system and assessed its effects on the milling, appearance, nutrition, taste and cooking qualities of the rice grain produced. Compared with conventional flooding irrigation (CF), AWD-grown rice had slightly decreased milling and appearance qualities. Addition of Z increased rice protein content and slightly decreased eating quality without affecting milling, appearance and cooking qualities. The highest yields achieved under AWD (9.8 t ha⁻¹) and CF (8.9 t ha⁻¹) were achieved using 105 kg N and 10 t Z ha⁻¹, and 105 kg N and 5 t Z ha⁻¹, respectively. Compared with the flooding untreated control (using 157.5 kg N ha⁻¹ and no Z), these two treatment regimens required 27.8% and 8.1% less water, 33.3% less N fertiliser and increased yields by 10.6% and 0.6%, respectively, without measurably affecting rice grain quality.

KEYWORDS:

• Grain yield
• alternate wetting and drying irrigation
• zeolite
• grain quality
• cooking quality
• rice

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Special Fund for Agro-scientific Research in the Public Interest of China under Grant 201303125 and the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 51679142.