EFFECT ON CROP YIELDS

Silicon fertilizers are applied to crops in several countries for increased productivity and sustainable production. It was found beneficial to barley, wheat, corn, sugarcane, cucumber, citrus, tomato and other crops .Several studies have suggested positive growth effects of silicon nutrition, increased biomass, yield and pollination.

• Si improves growth of maize and increases its production and yield in arid or semi-arid areas under water-stress conditions.

Revealed that silicon nutrition has significant effect on crop growth, physiological attributes and yield parameters.

• Boosted up crop growth and accumulation of more photo assimilates from source to sink and consequently, it led to higher grain yield. It found that the increase in silicon leads to increase in leaf area index (LAI), specific leaf weight, chlorophyll content (SPAD), leaf dry weight (LDW), SDW, root dry weight (RDW), total dry weight (TDW) and remarkable decrease in leaf water potential and shoot to root ratio in sorghum cultivars as compared to control treatment.

• Benefits of Silcon to Rice blast and grain discoloration are mainly responsible for significant losses in grain yield and quality both in upland and irrigated ecosystems in China and India. Even though varietal resistance constitutes a major component in rice disease management, it should be integrated with long-term benefits of silicon (Si) fertilization.

• Sugarcane is silicon (Si) accumulating crop and responds very well for silicon fertilization. Deficiency of silicon to sugarcane is also one of the prime reasons for low cane yields & low sugar recovery.Sugarcane being Si accumulating crop and it absorbs silicon more than N, P & K. 12 month old sugarcane crop of 100 MT / ha. absorbs about  400 Kg. Si; 205 Kg. N; 55 kg. P and 275 Kg. K per ha.

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• Silicon for Balanced fertilizer use: - The use efficiency of fertilizers used for sugarcane is around 35% to 40%. It means about 60% to 65% nutrients in the fertilizers are lost due to various reasons like leaching, loss due to surface run off, evaporation and fixation of phosphates in the soil etc. Use of silicon helps preventing loss of Nitrogenous fertilizers to the extent of 40%, it also prevents phosphate fixation & makes available phosphates fixed in the soil & thus availability of phosphatic fertilizers can be increased by 40 to 70%.

• Silicon for Disease & Pest management: - Silicon helps in reducing attack of many insects like Wooly Aphids, Pyrilla, stemborer etc. as well as reduces infection of diseases like Rust, Ring spot, Leaf freckling etc. Use of silicon helps in strengthening cell walls & there by making leaves hard & stiff. The sucking insects find difficulty in penetrating
their trunk in the leaf and their mandibles get injured & thus reduces attack of many insects.

• Prevention of Inversion of Sugar: - The Sucrose is converted in other forms of sugar compounds, which reduces cane weight and sugar contents. Use of silicon for sugarcane helps in formation & storage of sugar & prevents inversion of sugar in different sugar compounds which helps in reduction of sugar loss and cane weight.

• Reducing lodging & Improving Erectness: - Erectness under field conditions particularly in dense stands of sugarcane, silica stimulates growth and yield by improving leaf erectness, which decreases susceptibility to lodging. Leaf erectness is an important factor affecting light interception in dense plant population and hence photo synthesis.

 

• Silicon to wheat boosted up crop growth and accumulation of more photoassimilates
from source to sink and consequently, it led to higher grain yield. Si increased growth
and yield due to decreased Na +  uptake in wheat under salt stress.