Utilization of rice husk silicate extract to improve the productivity of paddy Ciherang cultivar

Abstract

Rice is staple food of Indonesian and most of Asian people. Various researches were conducted to increase rice production. The practice of rice cultivation by farmers to restore rice straw and rice husks in the form of compost to agricultural land is rarely done. This practice causes the reduction of the silica availability in the soil. The element of silica in rice plants is a functional micro element in improving the quality of paddy grains. One of the efforts to overcome the lack of Si element, and increase the productivity of paddy in the field is to give the silica from rice husk extraction and planted with using Jajar Legowo (planting arrangement). The experimental method using split plot design consists of two factors with three replications. The first factor was Jajar Legowo (J), (j1) and (j2). The second factor is concentration of silica rice husk extract (S), ie 20 ml L-1 (s 1), 25 ml L-1 (s 2) and 30 ml L -1 (s 3). The observed data were analyzed with the analysis of variance at 5% significant level. Duncan’s multiple range test was performed at 5% significant level. The results showed that jajar legowo (j 1) and 20 ml L-1 silica rice husk extracts with the best treatment yielded 1000 grains of 40.5 g, productivity per plot of 842.45 g m -2 or 8.42 t ha-1, yield of paddy per hill 54.09 g, plant height 107,91 cm, percentage of unfilled grain 4.3 % and number of tillers 15.62.