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Effect of Organic Fertilizer and

Effective Microorganisms on
Growth, Yield and Quality of
Paddy-Rice Varieties
a
Shinji Iwaishi
a
International Nature Farming Research Center,
Hata , Nagano, 390-1401, Japan
Published online: 20 Oct 2008.

To cite this article: Shinji Iwaishi (2001) Effect of Organic Fertilizer and Effective
Microorganisms on Growth, Yield and Quality of Paddy-Rice Varieties, Journal of Crop
Production, 3:1, 269-273, DOI: 10.1300/J144v03n01_22

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1300/J144v03n01_22

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 Effect of Organic Fertilizer
and Effective Microorganisms
on Growth, Yield and Quality
of Paddy-Rice Varieties
Downloaded by [University of Guelph] at 15:11 01 October 2014

Shinji Iwaishi

SUMMARY. The effect of an organic fertilizer inoculated with Effective

Microorganisms (EM) on the growth, yield and quality of 13 paddy-rice
varieties varying with maturation period was studied. EM inoculation
increased kernel enlargement after the panicle formation stage and also
increased ear number and length and kernel number. The yield of brown
rice from EM inoculation was higher for the standard fertilizer rate and
lower for the higher rate of organic fertilizer. EM inoculation increased
the glutinousness and the total quality index of glutinous rice varieties.
Under 1993 weather conditions, early and medium-ripening non-gluti-
nous varieties and glutinous varieties were suitable for nature farming
with EM-inoculated organic fertilizer. [Article copies available for a fee
from The Haworth Document Delivery Service: 1-800-342-9678. E-mail
address: getinfo@haworthpressinc.com <Website: http://www.HaworthPress.com>]

KEYWORDS. Effective microbes, EM, nature farming, organic fertil-

izer, quality, rice variety

INTRODUCTION
During the last decades, a microbial inoculant referred to as Effective
Microorganisms or EM has been used with considerable success in nature

Shinji Iwaishi is Research Agronomist, International Nature Farming Research

Center, Hata, Nagano 390-1401, Japan (E-mail: infrc390@janis.or.jp).
[Haworth co-indexing entry note]: ‘‘Effect of Organic Fertilizer and Effective Microorganisms on
Growth, Yield and Quality of Paddy-Rice Varieties.’’ Iwaishi, Shinji. Co-published simultaneously in
Journal of Crop Production (Food Products Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc.) Vol. 3, No. 1 (#5),
2000, pp. 269-273; and: Nature Farming and Microbial Applications (ed: Hui-lian Xu, James F. Parr, and
Hiroshi Umemura) Food Products Press, an imprint of The Haworth Press, Inc., 2000, pp. 269-273. Single
or multiple copies of this article are available for a fee from The Haworth Document Delivery Service
[1-800-342-9678, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (EST). E-mail address: getinfo@haworthpressinc.com].

E 2000 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. 269

 270 NATURE FARMING AND MICROBIAL APPLICATIONS

farming and organic farming systems in Japan and throughout the Asia-Pacif-
ic region. EM is a mixed culture of naturally-occurring, beneficial microor-
ganisms (predominantly, lactic acid bacteria, photosynthetic bacteria, yeast,
actinomycetes and fungi) that has reportedly enhanced soil quality and bio-
diversity and increased the growth, yield and quality of crops (Higa and Parr,
1994). There is some indication that EM applied in combination with an
organic amendment (or organic fertilizer) is more effective than applied
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alone. This is likely true because most of the microorganisms in EM are

classified as heterotropgic, i.e., they require organic forms of carbon and
nitrogen for metabolism and biosynthesis. There is considerable interest in
inoculating organic fertilizers with EM and allowing a period of fermentation
prior to application (Fujita, 1995), thereby improving the quality and effec-
tiveness of organic fertilizers for nature farming systems. Thus, the purpose
of this study was to determine the effect of an organic fertilizer with and
without EM inoculation on the growth, yield and quality of different paddy
rice varieties and to select suitable varieties for nature farming systems.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Geographic and Climatic Conditions

The experiment was conducted in 1993 at the Agricultural Experiment

Station, International Nature Farming Research Center, Matsumoto, Japan
(36_N, 101_W, 685 m elevation). The soil was classified as an Andosol
derived from volcanic ash. The annual mean temperature was 11.2_C and
annual total precipitation was 1,011 mm. The crop season in 1993 was unusu-
ally cool with low temperatures, little sunshine and excessive rainfall. Espe-
cially in July and August, the temperature stayed far below that of the normal
year.

Treatments

Thirteen paddy-rice varieties, 11 of which were non-glutinous and two

were glutinous, different in maturation period, were grown with organic
fertilizer with or without a microbial inoculant. The organic fertilizer (com-
position shown in Table 1) was either inoculated with EM and fermented,
designated as OF + EM, or uninoculated and fermented by naturally-occur-
ring indigenous microorganisms, designated as OF. The organic fertilizers in
black polyethylene bags and fermented anaerobically at room temperature.
This fermented product is often referred to as EM bokashi. The two organic
fertilizers (OF + EM) and OF were applied to plots at two rates, i.e., a
 Part II: Microbial Applications 271

standard rate of 18.7 kg a−1 and a higher rate of 27.5 kg a−1. Basal applica-
tions of the two fertilizers were made 30 days prior to planting rice and
dressing applications were made on June 11 and July 21. The four treatments
used throughout the study were:

1. OF + EM applied at 18.7 kg a−1,

2. OF applied at 18.7 kg a−1,
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3. OF + EM applied at 27.5 kg a−1,

4. OF applied at 27.5 kg a−1.

Experiment Design

Treatments were applied using a randomized complete block design with

four replications. Area of each plot was 18 m2. The data were analyzed using
Fisher’s LSD test.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Plant Growth

At the maximum tillering stage, plants treated with the standard or low rate
of EM-inoculated organic fertilizer (OF + EM) were taller with fewer tillers
compared with organic fertilizer alone (OF). At the high rate of application,
plants treated with OF + EM were shorter than those treated with organic
fertilizer (OF) alone, but both treatments produced the same number of
stems. Leaves in the OF + EM plots were lighter in color than those in the OF
plots for both rates of organic fertilizer application. At the maturation stage,
plants in the OF + EM plots had more ears and longer culms than the non-EM
plots (Table 2). Although there was no difference in plant growth between the

TABLE 1. Composition and application rates of organic fertilizer inoculated and

fermented with or without EM as a microbial inoculant.

EM Rice Fish Rape Molasses Molasses Bone Zeolite Applied rate

bran meal cake MI (1%) steamed meal (kg a−1)*
Yes 3.0 2.0 3.0 1.7 0.0 6.0 3.0 18.7
No 3.0 2.0 3.0 0.0 1.7 6.0 3.0 18.7
Yes 6.0 4.0 6.0 2.5 0.0 6.0 3.0 27.5
No 6.0 4.0 6.0 0.0 2.5 6.0 3.0 27.5
*The organic fertilizers were applied at two rates, i.e., 18.7 and 2.57 kg a−1. ‘‘Are’’ is a land measurement used
by many countries of the Asia-Pacific region; the abbreviation for ‘‘are’’ is ‘‘a’’, and 1 are or 1 a = 0.01 hectare.
 272 NATURE FARMING AND MICROBIAL APPLICATIONS

EM-treated plants and non-EM plants at the early growth stage, the increased
growth at the maturing stage was likely the result of enhanced plant growth
from EM treatment after panicle formation.

Yield and Yield Components

The yield of brown rice at the standard or low rate of organic fertilizer was
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higher in the EM-treated plots than in the non-EM plots. For all varieties, the
yield increase ranged from 8 to 19% (Table 3). At the high rate of organic
fertilizer, EM treatment had little effect on the yield of brown rice for the
late-ripening, non-glutinous varieties. However, the yield increase due to EM
treatment for all other varieties ranges from 2 to 6%. Thus, EM treatment was
found to be beneficial on increasing the grain number, ear number and length,
and kernel weight, consequently increasing the yield of brown rice.

Quality

The quality of rice was measured by near-infrared spectroscopic analysis.

For non-glutinous varieties no correlation was observed between the EM-in-

TABLE 2. Heading date and date of maturity of cultivar group.

Early Medium Late Glutinous

Heading date Aug. 12 Aug. 20 Aug. 23 Aug. 15
Maturity date Sept. 25 Oct. 10 Oct. 23 Sept. 26
Early, early varieties; Medium, medium varieties; Late, late varieties; Glutinous, glutinous varieties.

TABLE 3. Effects of two rates of organic fertilizer inoculated and fermented with
or without EM on the growth, yield and quality of rice.

Organic EM Length (cm) Number Grain BR yield 1,000 Quality

rate Culm Ear Ear (m−2) (103 m−2) (kg a−1) (%) KW(g) G T
Low Yes 70.08 17.05 415.50 29.78 52.63 112 21.38 1.26 0.57
3.51 0.33 8.95 1.17 0.45 2.5 0.26 0.34 0.11

Low No 68.40 16.33 404.50 26.20 47.13 100 21.10 1.20 0.53
2.76 0.29 9.74 1.37 1.33 0.0 0.24 0.27 0.14

High Yes 74.63 14.43 475.50 33.30 54.10 103 20.75 1.11 0.42
3.72 2.69 18.57 0.62 1.56 1.3 0.21 0.27 0.13

High No 73.23 16.85 467.00 31.68 52.83 100 20.75 1.08 0.44
3.36 0.22 13.30 0.25 2.00 0.0 0.25 0.18 0.15
BR, brown rice; %, percentage against the control; 1,000 KW, weight of 1,000 kernels; G, glutinousness; T, total
quality index. The quality of rice was measured with near infrared spectroscopic analyzer (NIRECO) for whole
grians of polished rice. Low application rate was 18.7 kg a−1 and the high application rate was 27.5 kg a−1.
 Part II: Microbial Applications 273

oculation treatment and the total quality index. For glutinous varieties it was
found that the glutinousness of rice in the EM-treated plots was higher than
the non-EM treated plots.

Desired Varieties

Middle-late-ripening varieties are recommended as suitable for nature

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farming in this region. However, early-ripening varieties yielded higher with

a better quality than the middle-late varieties, which was contrary to our
expectation. The reason for this seems to be related with the harsh, unseason-
able weather conditions during the cultivation period. The temperature was
low with little sunshine which also caused low temperatures ranging from 13
to 15_C in irrigation water of the experimental field. Therefore, under the
weather conditions of 1993, early-ripening varieties and medium-ripening
varieties, which were considered as cool weather tolerant (Sato and Horisue,
1992), were suitable for nature farming systems among non-glutinous vari-
eties. Furthermore, because of their high yield and good quality, glutinous
varieties seem to be suitable for nature farming with EM-inoculated organic
fertilizer.

REFERENCES

Fujita, M. (1995). An approach of apple cultivation towards nature farming. In

Proceedings of the Fourth Conference on the Technology of Effective Microor-
ganisms, ed. J. F. Parr. Saraburi (Thailand): APNAN, pp. 338-355.
Higa, T. and J.F. Parr. (1994). Beneficial and Effective Microorganisms for a Sustain-
able Agriculture and Environment. Atami (Japan): International Nature Farming
Research Center, 16 p.
Sato, S. and N. Horisue. (1992). Cool Weather tolerance of rice plants. In Rice Plant
Breeding in Japan, eds. K. Fushibuchi, T. Kaneda, R. Yamamoto, Y. Akama, and
K. Maruyama. Tokyo: Agricultural Technology Association, pp. 338-355.