Influence of goat manure and Azolla on soil properties, nitrogen use efficiency, growth and yield of organic rice farming in Indonesia

Abstract

Application of organic fertilizers plays an important role in increasing nutrient availability to plants. However, external sources of C in organic farming must originate from nonsynthetic materials such as organic fertilizers or soil amendments. Goat manure and azolla green manure are widely available sources of organic fertilizers in the farmers village.The study was aimed to observe the effect of combined fertilizers dose of azolla and goat manure on N efficiency and to find the optimum dose ofthe fertilizers which gives the best rice growth and production. The experiment was located in farmers field of Sambirejo, Sragen, Indonesia. A completely randomized block design was implemented in the experiment with treatments of combined fertilizer dose between Azolla and goat manure. The treatments were : K 0 A 0 , K 0 A 1 , K 1 A 0 , K 1 A 1 , K 2 A 0 , K 2 A 1 which is K: goat manure; A: Azolla (0 means 0 t/ha, 1 means: 3 t/ha, 2 means: 6 t/ha). The results showed that combined treatment of K 2 A 0 and K 2 A 1 produced highest N use fertilizer efficiency. No significant differences were found among the rice yield after the treatments, however treatment of K 2 A 0 showed the optimum rice yield (6.8 t/ha).