Author(s)

Muhammad Aslam Ali^1*, Md. Rajib Hassan¹, Zubair Al Islam¹, Sanjit Chandra Barman¹, Badiuzzaman Khan¹, Rehana Khatun¹, Hafsa Jahan Hiya¹, Md. Touhidul Islam²

¹Department of Environmental Science, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.
²Department of Irrigation and Water Management, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.

Climate change may badly affect the availability of water and soil nutrients to rice plant. Research experiments were conducted at the Environmental Science Departmental field, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh during July 2017 to June 2019, to find out the suitable combination of biochar with inorganic fertilizers for minimizing seasonal yield scaled CH₄ emissions, reducing global warming potentials (GWPs) and sustainable rice farming under feasible irrigation practices. There were ten experimental treatments with different combinations of inorganic NPKS fertilizers and biochar (15 - 30 t/ha) under conventional flooding (CF) and alternate wetting-drying irrigations (AWDI). This study revealed that NPKS fertilization (50% of the recommended doze) with 15 t/ha biochar amendments under AWD irrigation maximized rice yield 6750 kg/ha and 4380 kg/ha in dry boro and wet aman seasons respectively, while the lowest rice yield 1850 kg/ha and 1550 kg/ha were recorded in continuously irrigated control treatment (T₁) during the dry and wet seasons respectively. Seasonal cumulative CH₄ emission, yield scaled CH₄ emission and GWPs were suppressed significantly with biochar amendments 15 - 30 t/ha under both conventional and AWDI irrigation systems during the wet and dry seasons of rice cultivation. Significant interactions were observed among biochar amendments and irrigation practices during the dry boro rice cultivation. Dry seasonal cumulative CH₄ emissions were decreased by 14.7%, 18.9% and 24.8% with biochar amendments at 15 t/ha, 20 t/ha and 30 t/ha respectively under conventional irrigation; while cumulative CH₄ emissions were reduced by 10.6%, 26% and 41.6% respectively, under AWDI system. Finally, total global warming potentials (GWPs) were decreased by 6% - 15%, 13% - 30% with biochar amendments under conventional and AWDI irrigations respectively, in wet season; while global warming potentials (GWPs) also decreased by 14% - 25%, 11% - 42% with biochar amendments under conventional and AWDI irrigations, respectively, in the dry boro season. Biochar amendments increased water productivity index to some extent, but AWD irrigations significantly increased water productivity over the conventional irrigation in both wet and dry seasons. After experimental period, it was found that soil porosity, redox status, soil organic carbon (SOC) as well as overall soil properties were improved significantly with biochar amendments and AWD irrigations. Conclusively, biochar amendments @15 - 20 t/ha with half of the recommended inorganic (NPKS) fertilizers under alternate wetting-drying irrigations revealed an environment friendly integrated package approach to reduce seasonal cumulative CH₄ emissions as well as GWPs, while improving rice rhizosphere environment and rice productivity to meet the national food security.

CH₄ Flux, GWPs, AWDI, Yield Scaled CH₄ Emission, Dry Boro Rice, Rainfed Aman Rice

Ali, M. , Hassan, M. , Islam, Z. , Barman, S. , Khan, B. , Khatun, R. , Hiya, H. and Islam, M. (2021) Development of Environment Friendly Paddy Ecosystem for Sustainable Rice Farming through Soil Amendments with Biochar and Alternate Wetting-Drying Irrigations. American Journal of Climate Change, 10, 581-596. doi: 10.4236/ajcc.2021.104029.