Potential of Rice Husk Bio-char as a Sustainable Soil Fertilizer Alternative

Abstract This study was conducted to test the effectiveness of biochar rice husk as an alternative fertilizer for the growth of mustard greens. There are four treatments used in this experiment, where CK is the control, BRH10 is rice husk biochar with 10% mixing rate (w/w), BRH30 is rice husk biochar with 30% (w/w) mixing rate and BRH50 is rice husk biochar with 50%(w/w) mixing rate. There are two types of soil used in the study labelled as Soil A (silty loam soil) and Soil B (sandy clay loam). Several analyses have been done to identify the suitability of biochar to be used as soil fertilizer including determining functional groups, morphology, pH, elements, height and weight. The results of the study showed that the crop yield obtained for height and weight measurement in the BRH10 treatment is the best, which is 7.9 cm and 0.4477 g. Based on the results of soil pH, SEM analysis and elemental analysis, it showed that the biochar is suitable for the cultivation of mustard greens and showed the ability to increase soil fertility. In conclusion of this study is that the BRH10 treatment for soil B has a better effect on the growth of mustard green plants compared to soil A and other treatments. Therefore, this biochar rice husk is suitable as an alternative fertilizer but should be used in less quantities.