Evaluation of egg-based fermented liquid formulation for improving organic rice yield

The productivity of organic farming relies on locally available or prepared organic inputs. One such locally organic formulation, fermented egg extract (FEE), requires scientific evaluation of its physicochemical and biological properties, as well as optimisation of its foliar spray concentration for enhanced rice growth and productivity. Preparation of FEE was carried out by immersing 10 eggs in lemon juice (extracted from 20-25 lemons) for 10 days. Then, eggs were crushed well and 250 g of jaggery was supplemented and set aside for another 10 days. The filtered liquid formulation was taken for laboratory analysis. The results on physicochemical and biological properties showed that the pH was acidic (4.8) and EC was 9.85 dSm-1. It contains a considerable amount of plant nutrients such as N (0.93%), P (0.13%), K (0.15%), Ca (292 ppm), Mg (112 ppm), S (7.93 ppm), Cu (0.3 ppm), Zn (7.9 ppm), Mn (0.17 ppm) and Fe (8.4 ppm). Microbial populations namely total fungi, bacteria and actinobacteria found in FEE were 15 × 104, 197 × 106 and 3.23 × 102 (CFU ml-1), respectively. A field study was carried out for 2 consecutive years to evaluate the impact of foliar spray of different FEE concentrations at panicle initiation and flowering stages of rice. The findings indicate that foliar spray of 2.0% FEE twice significantly improved growth, yield attributes, grain productivity (4897 kg/ha) and benefit-cost ratio (2.27) compared to untreated control. Thus, 2.0% fermented egg extract foliar application is identified as a potential nutrient formulation to enhance the productivity of organic rice.