Yield, nutrient uptake and potassium use efficiency in rice fertilized with crushed rocks

Abstract

The increasing world population has led into big food and raw material demand, with high pressure on agriculture. In Brazil, potassium fertilizers are mostly imported rising interest on rocks and mining rejects as alternative sources. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of crushed rocks over mineral nutrition, yield and efficiency of potash fertilization in rice. The experiment was carried out under greenhouse conditions in pots with 3.7 kg of Oxisol soil samples. The experimental design was completely randomized, in a factorial layout 4 × 6, comprising six crushed rocks used as alternative multinutrient fertilizer (breccia, biotite schist, ultramafic, Chapada byproduct, mining byproduct and phlogopite), and four doses based on potassium (0, 200, 400, 600 kg K 2 O ha -1 ), with four replications. The concentration and accumulation of potassium, copper, zinc and nickel in rice shoot dry mass were determined. These data were used to evaluate the efficiency index of K-source rocks on fertilization. It was shown that crushed rocks promote alterations in mineral nutrition, grain yield and potassium use efficiency, remarking their potential to be used as alternative fertilizer in rice cropping systems.

Solubility and availability of micronutrients extracted from silicate agrominerals

“…A mining by-product from Chapada (BPC), a residue from a gold ore flotation process, was obtained from a mine at Chapada, in the state of Goiás, and consisted of biotite schist, formed by the interaction of metasedimentary and granite rocks. These materials have been thoroughly described (Silva et al, 2012(Silva et al, , 2014Guelfi-Silva, 2013).…”

“…The possibility of using crushed rocks and/or mining waste as agrominerals has been evaluated for more than 65 years (Manning, 2010). Among these materials, silicates stand out to correct acidity and provide nutrients such as calcium, magnesium (Silva et al, 2012), and potassium (Guelfi-Silva et al, 2013;Silva et al, 2014). This is important since Brazil imports 95% of K fertilizers (Castro & Leite, 2018), leading to a search for alternative sources of this nutrient to reduce this dependency and enhance national security.…”

Rice (Oryza sativa L.) yield and potassium use efficiency as affected by potassium fertilizer sources

“…The unique genetic characteristics of each rice variety play a crucial role in determining its capacity for absorbing and utilizing essential soil nutrients efficiently. Alterations in K use efficiencies were recorded by Silva et al, (2014) [15] and Sabir et al (2003) [14] . This result was in accordance with the findings of Murthy et al, (2015) [12] .…”

Rock Powder Can Improve Vermicompost Chemical Properties and Plant Nutrition: an On-farm Experiment

“…Some organic and mineral wastes are not commercially exploited due to the lack of technical knowledge about their use or lack of availability of the product on the market. One of the alternatives is the use of rock powder because it can increase nutrients available to plants, nutritional reserves in the soil and plant resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses (Leonardos, Theodoro, and Assad 2000;Mancuso et al 2014;Ramos et al 2015;Silva et al 2014).…”