Rice Science ›› 2016, Vol. 23 ›› Issue (4): 196-202.DOI: 10.1016/j.rsci.2016.06.002

• Orginal Article • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Assessing Silicon Availability in Soils of Rice-Growing Lowlands and Neighboring Uplands in Benin and Nigeria

S. Abe S.1,2(), Yamasaki Y.2, Wakatsuki T.2,3   

  1. 1Africa Rice Center, 01 BP2031, Cotonou, Benin
    2Faculty of Agriculture, Kinki University, Nara 631-8505, Japan
    3Faculty of Life and Environmental Science, Shimane University, Matsue 690-8504, Japan
  • Received:2015-07-17 Accepted:2015-10-19 Online:2016-07-28 Published:2016-04-11

Abstract:

Silicon (Si) is known as a beneficial nutrient in the cultivation of rice, playing a key role in photosynthesis enhancement, lodging resistance and tolerance to various environmental stress. The present study aimed to examine available Si content in both lowland soils (n = 29) and neighboring upland soils (n = 21) collected from Benin and Nigeria and to evaluate the validity of the assessment results through a pot experiment. Our results revealed that the acetate-buffer method predicted Si concentration in rice straw at the harvest stage (R2 = 0.68, P < 0.01) better than the anaerobic-incubation method (R2 = 0.31, P > 0.05), and 76% of the uplands and 38% of the lowlands were deficient (< 50 mg/kg) in acetate-buffer soluble Si. These findings suggest that the Si-deficiency soils prevail across the study area, making rice plants starved for Si and prone to environmental stress.

Key words: Oryza sativa, silicon, upland field, lowland field