Improvement of soil biochemical properties and rice yield in salty soils of lower Casamance, Senegal

The aims were to assess the effect of organo-mineral fertilizers on soil biochemical and rice performance parameters in acid sulfate soil. Thus, a trial was performed using a fully randomized design with four replications. Five fertilizers which were organic (compost_F1 and compost_F2) and mineral (mineral fertilization_MF and phosphogypsum_P) and control_T0 were adopted to determine their effects on soil properties and rice yield. The results showed that the soil biochemical proprieties varied significantly (p˂0.05) according soil depth. Β-glucosidase (81.74±12.61 μg p-NP. gsoil-1 hr-1), phosphatase (43.93±6.31 μg p-NP. gsoil-1 hr-1) and pH (4.30±0.09) were significatively higher on top than depth soil. The soil salinity was higher in depth (66.65±6.77dSm-1) than top (59.08±5.74 dSm-1) soil. Fertilizers influenced significantly soil biochemical properties. Organic fertilizers increased significantly β-glucosidase (66.31±24.92 μg p-Npgsoil-1 hr-1), phosphatase (50.95±10.58 μg p-NPg soil-1 hr-1) and pH (4.39±0.17) than mineral. However, mineral fertilizers reduced the salinity (47.84±7.89 dSm-1) compared to organic (55.82±6.18 dSm-1) and control (84.95±6.53 dSm-1). Soil pH increased from initial (3.73±0.22) to reach the pick at 60DAS (5.69±1.03) and decreased to 4.10±0.36 at 120 DAS. Results showed that the growth and yield parameters and yield of rice in organic fertilizers were higher than that of the mineral. The organic fertilizers increased rice growth and yield parameters and yield. However, height, tillers and panicles of rice in the Compost-F1 and Compost-F2 were lower than that of the MF. The analysis showed that control and phosphogypsum reduced rice performance with higher mortality, infertility and sterility. Organic fertilizers improved soil biochemical properties and agronomic performance of rice in acidic saline soils.