Issue |
Agron. Sustain. Dev.
Volume 27, Number 3, July-September 2007
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Page(s) | 223 - 229 | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/agro:2007002 | |
Published online | 07 March 2007 |
DOI: 10.1051/agro:2007002
Nutritional quality of organic rice grown on organic composts
Supradip Saha, A.K. Pandey, K.A. Gopinath, R. Bhattacharaya, S. Kundu and H.S. GuptaVivekananda Institute of Hill Agriculture, Almora, UA - 263 601, India
(Accepted 19 December 2006; published online 7 March 2007)
Abstract - The use of organic nutrient sources in improving crop quality can be a
viable alternative to traditional farming. Organic farming encourages the
reduction of agrochemicals and promotes soil conservation principles.
Although crop quality depends on several factors, among which the nutrient
source plays a great role, there is little information available on how rice
quality is affected by different organic composts. Here we grew aromatic rice on
two levels of four organic composts made from kudzu vine (Pueraria lobata) at 5 and 10 Mg ha-1, Urtica sp. (nettle) at 5 and 10 Mg ha-1, Lantana sp. at 5 and 10 Mg ha-1, winter weeds at 2.5 and 5 Mg ha-1, and two other organic
amendments of poultry at 2.5 and 5 Mg ha-1 and farmyard manure at 5 and
10 Mg ha-1. We studied the effect of these organic sources on
nutritional and physico-chemical properties, and on the cooking quality of
the rice, using a fertilized, chemical treatment as positive control. Our
results show that grain yield was significantly influenced by the supply of
major plant nutrients. The highest rice yield of 4.0 Mg ha-1 was
obtained from the inorganically fertilized treatment. The protein content in
grains was the highest, 8.98%, in the inorganic treatment (100:60:40 kg N, P, K ha-1) and lowest, 7.55%, in the control. Among organic
treatments, farmyard manure at 10 Mg ha-1 contributed the least in
terms of the protein content of the rice (7.78%). Significantly higher
iron content, of 52.2 g g-1, was recorded with organic
fertilization than inorganic fertilization (42.1
g Fe g-1).
However, inorganic fertilization was superior in terms of copper content, of
4.1
g Fe g-1, compared with organic treatments: 3.1-4.0
g Fe g-1. Quality attributes indicated that cooked kernel length was
positively correlated with the kernel elongation ratio. Winter weed compost
provided comparative benefits for rice yield (3.87 Mg ha-1) and quality
in terms of protein (8.42%), iron (48.31
g g-1) and head rice
recovery (49.39%) compared with other sources of nutrients. The results
of this study suggest that organic nutrient sources can perform
comparatively well as regards chemical and physico-chemical properties, and
cooking quality of rice, if not better in some parameters than inorganic
fertilization.
Key words: aromatic rice / organic compost / nutritional constituents / phytic acid / physico-chemical properties
Corresponding author: s_supradip@yahoo.com
© INRA, EDP Sciences 2007