EFFECT OF CHITIN NANOFIBER ON GROWTH AND YIELD OF RICE (BRRI dhan67)

Abstract

Khulna, the southwestern region of Bangladesh is famed for its frozen shrimp and fish processing industry and produces a huge amount of seafood waste (mainly shrimp) annually. To convert these wastes into a resource, chitin nanofiber (CNF) can be prepared from shrimp wastes. CNF has emerged as a key chemical utilized as a plant growth stimulant. To objectify this, a pot experiment was conducted at the Nursery of Forestry and Wood Technology Discipline, Khulna University, Khulna from 8^th February 2023 to 11^th May 2023 by employing CNF on BRRI dhan67. A single-factor experiment with five treatments (Water, Urea, 0.01% CNF, 0.05% CNF, and 0.1% CNF) and four replications investigated the influence of CNF on the growth and yield of BRRI dhan67. Soil application of CNF was statistically significant for all the growth parameters and yield contributing attributes except for plant height. During the entire growth period, urea resulted in the highest plant height (98.33 cm), leaf chlorophyll content (40.95), numbers of unfilled grain (562) and total grain (1836), grain yield (22.70 g), and harvest index (44.12%), and this result statistically similar with 0.01% CNF. The highest tiller number hill^-1 (22.75), the highest biomass (24.68 g), and the highest number of filled grain (1283) resulted from 0.01% CNF. 0.1% CNF resulted in the highest straw yield (30.40 g) and biological yield (53.11 g). Overall, 0.01% CNF resulted in similar growth and yield attributes of urea. Therefore 0.01% CNF can be an alternative to urea for rice production. However, more experiments should be conducted to finalize the recommendation.

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