An option to provide water and fertilization for rice production in alkaline soil: fertigation with slow release fertilizers (SRFs)

An increasing global population requires a greater food supply, and accordingly there is demand for enhanced production of rice, as a major crop plant that covers half of the world's population. Rice production in arid area is extremely difficult due to poor soil fertility, salinity, deficit of irrigation water, and weather conditions. The aim of the present study was to determine whether various fertilization recipes could provide a countermeasure to allow rice production while also providing soil amendment such as soil pH adjustment. The study was conducted at an experimental field of the United Arab-Emirates (UAE) from January to April, 2022. Rice seedlings (cv. Asemi, alkaline-resistant) were transplanted in plastic containers, and different types of water and nutrient managements were employed as follows: water management (flooding and aerobic for NPKs treatment group) and nutrient management (NPKs, slow release fertilizers [SRFs] and SRFs + NPK-1 treatment groups with flooding). Water and nutrient management did not show any effect on soil pH adjustment. Rice growth was significantly enhanced in the flooding compared to the aerobic condition, whereas the effect of nutrient management clearly differed among the treatment groups, with SRFs + NPK-1 showing the best results followed by SRFs and NPKs. Most of the fertilization groups markedly accumulated soluble sugars in the shoots and grains of rice plants, but concomitantly a decrease in the roots. Overall, the level of starch showed a tendency of relatively slight perturbation by fertilization. Taken together, the results indicate that soil physical structure should be preferentially amended to find the key for suitable rice production.