Evaluation of INM practices and nano urea on the performance of drum seeded rice

Introduction

Rice is one of the most important food crops and a primary food source for more than one third of the world's population (Prasad et al., 2010) [13] . India is the second largest producer and consumer of rice in the world. India is also the fourth largest exporter of rice in the world. Rice is cultivated worldwide in an area of 177.25 million ha with the production of 518.14 million tonnes, having a productivity of 2.92 t ha -1 (USDA, 2022-23) [20] . In India, rice is cultivated in an area of 46.38 million hectares having annual production of 130.29 million tonnes with a productivity of 2.8 t ha -1 (MAFW, 2022) [9] . In Tamil Nadu, rice is cultivating in the area of 2.2 million hectares with a production of 8.65 million tonnes and average productivity of about 3.93 t ha -1 (ICAR, 2023) [6] . Rice plants require a lot of mineral nutrients, especially nitrogen, to grow, develop, and produce grains. Nitrogen is one of the important elements in plant owing to its major part in chlorophyll production, which is essential for the photosynthesis process. Nitrogen is part of different enzymatic proteins that catalyze and regulate plant development processes (Sinfield et al., 2010) [18] . Nano urea is liquid formulations manufactured by Nano Biotechnology Research Center in association with Indian Farmers Fertilizers Cooperative Limited. The 500 ml of nano urea is equivalent to a 45 kg urea fertilizer. It contains nano scale nitrogen particles (55,000 nano particles) with high surface area (10,000 times over 1mm Urea prilled). On foliar application, these small particles are delivered directly to the plant cell, thereby releasing nitrogen inside the cells as per the requirement in a phased manner which ensure low and target efficient release for providing the nutrients to the crop and thus increase nutrient use efficiency. Thus, foliar application of nano urea enhances availability of nitrogen through stomata of leaves via gaseous uptake and activate many enzymes involved in biochemical pathways for maintenance of biological membranes. Integrated nutrient management has been shown to considerably improve rice yields by minimizing nutrient losses to the environment and managing the nutrient supply, and thereby results in high nutrient use efficiency (Parkinson et al., 2013) [12] . Integration of organic manure along with inorganic fertilizers could be the best option for sustaining rice yield and restoring soil fertility and facilitating the continuous supply of nutrients throughout the crop season. Therefore, the present investigation was under taken to study the effect of INM practices and nano urea on the growth and yield component for enhancing the production of rice.

Materials and Methods

The Field experiment was conducted in the Experimental Farm, Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar during Late Navarai season (February-May, 2023). The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design (RBD) using ADT-43 as the test crop with six treatments and four replications, viz., T 1 -100% RDF, T 2 -100% RDF + 25% RDN as goat manure, T 3 -100% RDF + 25% RDN as green leaf manure, T 4 -100% RDF + 0.2% Nano urea spray, T 5 -100% RDF + 25% RDN as goat manure + 0.2% Nano urea spray, T 6 -100% RDF + 25% RDN as green leaf manure + 0.2% Nano urea spray. The soil of the experiment field was clay in texture. The data were statistically analyzed as suggested by (Gomez and Gomez, 1984) [5] .

Results and Discussion

Growth attributes Among the treatments, the highest plant height (98.40 cm), number of tillers m -2 (468.6), leaf area index (5.44) and dry matter production (14,216 kg ha -1 ) were recorded under treatment T 5 -100% RDF + 25% RDN as Goat manure + 0.2 % Nano urea spray which was followed by treatment T 4 -100% RDF + 0.2 % as Nano urea spray (Table 1). Increase in plant height by application of goat manure might be due to high amount of phosphorus and potash content in goat manure, which is easily available to plants. This result is similar to the finding of Shalini and Brijbhooshan (2017) [16] and Bhattarai et al. (2020) [3] and also Foliar spray of nano urea might due to nitrogen that has been nano-encapsulated efficiently release nutrients, controlling plant growth and boosting target activity. The nano fertilizer is a colloidal farming fertilization additive that aids in nutrient uptake, transportation, and absorption. These result findings were in close agreement with the findings of (Bahmaniar and Sooaee-Mashaee (2010) [1] ; Benzon et al., 2015) [2] to positively influence plant height. The number of tillers (m -2 ) was found to be increased with foliar spray of nano urea might be due higher division, cell elongation and meristematic activity in plants. Similar findings reported by Ranjan et al. (2023) [15] . This was because reducing particle size increased a fertilizer's specific surface area and the quantity of particles per unit area. This increased the fertilizer's opportunities for penetration led to higher synthesis and mobilization of carbohydrates, proteins resulted in cell division, thus increased the number of tillers (m -2 ). Similar finding reported by Chandana et al. (2021) [4] ; Mahmoodi et al. (2020) [10] . Leaf area index increase was caused due to nano urea boosted the production of chlorophyll, which in turn raised the rate of photosynthesis, cell division and caused leaf growth. Higher plant height accommodating a greater number of leaves (Midde et al., 2022) [11] . Application of nano-urea spray has demonstrated a significant influence on rice leaf area index (LAI). Research by Sharma et al. (2022) [17] highlights that nanourea spray leads to increased LAI due to enhanced nutrient uptake and utilization. The nanoscale formulation ensures better nutrient penetration and absorption through leaves, promoting leaf expansion and overall canopy development. Foliar spray of nano urea fertilizer significantly improved the dry matter accumulation. area, particle size less than the leaves can easily penetrate into the plant and improve nutrient use efficiency leads to high dry matter production (Qureshi et al., 2018) [14] . Nanourea exhibit a beneficial impact on the activity of enzymes that produce antioxidants, chloroplasts, and nitrogen-reductase are methods for enhancing plant development which allows for better translocation of assimilates and photosynthates to different plant parts resulting in higher dry matter accumulation. These results are in agreement with the findings of Mahmoodi et al. (2020) [10] and Midde et al. (2022) [11] .

Grain yield and straw yield

Among the treatments, the highest grain yield (6,234 kg ha -1 ) and straw yield (9,261 kg ha -1 ) was observed under treatment T 5 -100% RDF + 25% RDN as Goat manure + 0.2 % Nano urea spray which was followed by treatment T 4 -100% RDF + 0.2 % as Nano urea spray (Table 1). Grain yield increased with application of goat manure might be due to the improved parameters like plant growth and filled grains per panicle. Goat manure's high levels of organic matter and nutrients promote better plant growth by enhancing soil microbial activity and facilitating the quick release of macroand micronutrients, which in turn boost rice's physiological and reproductive activities and result in a high yield. Similar finding is also documented by others authors, Surekha et al. (2010) [19] , Uwah and Eyo (2014) [21] and Shalini and Brijbhooshan (2017) [16] And, also the main way that nano fertilizers boost rice grain output is through the growth of plant parts and metabolic processes like photosynthesis, which increase the accumulation and transfer of photosynthates to the sections of the plant that are useful to the plant. These result findings were in close agreement with the findings of Kumar et al. (2020) [8] . A foliar spray of nano urea fertilizer enhanced the amount of straw produced. This could be because the nano fertilizer was quickly absorbed by the plant and was easy to translocate, which improved photosynthetic rates and raised the amount of dry matter buildup. Nearly similar results were found by Khalil et al. (2019) [7] .

Conclusion

Based on the results of the experiment it can be concluded that the treatment, T 5 -100% recommended dose of fertilizer + 25% recommended dose of nitrogen as goat manure + 0.2% Nano urea spray was highly impressive and showed the maximum growth attributes and yield of rice. Hence, this treatment is recommended to the farmers to attain highest growth and yield of rice.

References

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