Eco-enzyme enhanced the growth of rice cultivars

Organic farming has been increasingly lately to support healthy food for consumers. Organic rice is already produced in Bali for local rice cultivars (red, white, and black color of rice) at Jatiluwih Village, Tabanan Regency using manure, compost and biopesticide. Nowadays, eco-enzyme can be applied as liquid organic fertilizer for increasing soil fertility. Eco-enzyme are produced by fermentation process from kitchen waste, such as rind of fruit and vegetables. The experiment was conducted to observed the used of eco-enzyme for rice growth using modification of SRI (System of Rice Intensification). The method initially started from seeds germination at media consist of soil, compost and manure (1:1:1). Three rice cultivars (Red Rice Jatiluwih, Red Rice Pulagan and White Rice ‘Mentik Susu’) seeds were growth using two solutions (commercial liquid organic fertilizer namely LOF (10%) and eco-enzyme (0.1%) for spraying with 5 replications. Seeds germinated almost 90-95% for both solution after four days. Red Rice from Jatiluwih showed significance increase using eco-enzyme on plant height about 25% higher than spraying by liquid organic fertilizer. Red Rice from Pulagan, Gianyar and White rice ‘Mentik Susu’ only enhanced 10% and 5%, higher using eco-enzyme respectively. Rice paddy that treated by eco-enzyme can be harvested (2-3 weeks) faster than using commercial liquid organic fertilizer. White rice ‘Mentik Susu’ showed positive response with eco-enzyme treatment because had more tillers to increase harvest product than other cultivars. The use of eco-enzyme can assist plant growth by enzyme activity in soil, therefore more availability of nutrients for root uptake.


Introduction
Rice is a staple food for the Indonesian population.Rice production is carried out by planting rice organically and inorganically.Organic rice has been preferred by consumers for food safety and sustainable agriculture.The condition in Bali in 2020, harvested area and rice production has decreased since 2019 by 4.55% and 8.14 respectively [1].The reduction of rice field areas and rice production was due to land use change and the use of synthetic fertilizer for long term.Nowadays, farmers start to applied organic fertilizer to improve soil fertility using System of Rice Intensification (SRI) technology that oriented on crop, soil and water management [2,3].
Mentik Susu rice is rice that is produced organically at Sangeh, Badung Regency and is categorized as healthy rice, especially for diabetics because it contains low sugar levels.Mentik Susu Rice can also be used as a complement to MPASI (Complementary Foods for Mother's Milk) for toddlers because the texture of rice is soft so it is easy to digest.Pulagan red rice, also known as pink rice, comes from rice fields in Pulagan Village, Gianyar Regency.The color of the rice is lighter than Jatiluwih red rice because Pulagan red rice is thought to belong to the Inpari variety which is milled twice so that the color becomes pink.Jatiluwih red rice cv Cendana comes from Jatiluwih Village, Tabanan Regency.Jatiluwih red rice is cultivated organically and contains anthocyanins.In addition, red rice cv Cendana from Tabanan Regency were used as healthy drinks (rice tea) and as natural dyes [4]  Eco-enzyme was first introduced by Thai researcher Dr. Rosukon Poonpanvong who used fresh kitchen waste in the form of peel of fresh fruit and vegetables.Eco-enzyme can be used as liquid organic fertilizers for agriculture and also in rice cultivation [5].The kitchen waste is fermented for three months with water added with molasses or palm sugar under anaerobic conditions.The composition of water, molasse and waste from peel of fruits and vegetables affected aroma, pH and color of eco-enzyme [6].Eco-enzyme applied on shallot (Allium ascalonicum L.) at a dose of 1.75 ml/L of water could increase root growth and number of leaves [7].The purposed of study was to investigate application 0,1% eco-enzyme and commercial Liquid Organic Fertilizer on growth of rice local cultivars.

Methods
The study was conducted at Sangeh, Badung Regency.Before sowed, the seeds of three rice cultivars from local Bali were tested for seed viability using salt solution.Rice seeds were soaked for 15 minutes in salt solution, then the seeds floating in the salt water were discarded and the seeds that sank continued to rinsed three times to remove effect of salt.Viable seeds from each rice cultivar were treated by 0,1 % eco-enzyme solution and 10% commercial Liquid Organic Fertilizer (LOF) branded as 'Mutiara' for 6 hours then incubated in dark condition for three days to induce sprouting of radicle.
After incubation, seedlings were germinated using media that mixture of soils, compost, and manure (1:1:1) in plastic trays under shaded condition.After germination for 14 days in tray, seedlings were transferred to the field.Experimental design was Randomized Completely Design.There were 2 treatments, included rice cultivars and LOF.Three cultivars (Red rice from Jatiluwih-Tabanan Regency, red rice from Pulagan-Gianyar Regency and white rice 'Mentik Susu') were grown with two kinds of LOF solution (0.1% of eco-enzyme and 10 % of commercial LOF 'Mutiara').Each treatment combination was repeated 5 times.Polybags were used in the field with same media to plant and grow the rice seedlings until harvested.Plants were watering twice daily to keep media humidity.Red rice Pulagan and Mentik Susu cultivar were harvested at 3 months after planted and for red rice Jatiluwih was harvested at 5 months after planted.

Result and discussions
Seedlings after 3 days of incubation with eco-enzyme and Liquid Organic Fertilizer treatment showed that the percentage of seeds germination for all cultivars ranged from 90-95% for both treatments.After 14 days of germination in plastic tray, seedlings were measured for plant height and root length (figure 1).Each cultivars showed different response to both treatments.The height of Jatiluwih Red rice cultivar seedlings was 25% higher with the application of eco-enzyme compared to the application of Liquid Organic Fertilizers.The increase in height of the red rice Pulagan was only 10% with spraying eco-enzyme, but the height of Mentik Susu rice cultivars was decreased 5% after soaking seeds and spraying seedlings by eco-enzyme.During germination process, all enzymes in the seed become active to promote growth of seedlings.Eco-enzyme contain enzyme such as amylase, protease and lipase to support mechanism internal enzyme inside the cotyledon [8].On the other hand, the root length of the seedlings was shorter using eco-enzyme for Red Jatiluwih (14.8%) and Red Pulagan (26.1%), but not for Mentik Susu cultivar (8.1%) (figure 1).Imbibition is first stage of germination.During germination, decomposition of amylase enzyme from food reserve (cotyledon) produce energy for growth of radicle.Each rice cultivar has different response to the treatment.Eco-enzyme can enhance root growth and its vigor [8].Eco-enzyme able to assist soil to provide macro nutrients such as N, P, and K for plant growth.Eco-enzyme also produced Nitrate (NO3) and CO3 (Carbon trioxide) which were required by the soil as nutrient sources [9].Organic materials affect the K2O content and C/N ratio of eco-enzyme [10].
After 3 months planted in the field, rice plant height treated by Liquid Organic Fertilizer showed higher than Eco-enzyme treatment (figure 2).Red Rice Jatiluwih is the highest, and significantly different to two other cultivars due to Red Rice Jatiluwih is local cultivar which only harvest twice a year.Eco-enzyme treatment is not significantly different with Liquid Organic Fertilizer between cultivars because first application of eco-enzyme was not sufficient to improve soil media during the experiment.Usually, application of eco-enzyme for at least three times could improve soil condition by enhanced biological decomposition of soil amendment.Plants were harvested at 3 months after planted in the field for cultivar Red Rice Pulagan and Mentik Susu.Cultivar Red Rice Jatiluwih was harvested at 5 months.Eco-enzyme treatment showed harvesting time earlier 2 weeks than LOF treatment for all rice cultivars.Cultivar Mentik Susu showed positive respond to Eco-enzyme application whereas number of tillers and grain weight higher than LOF application (table 1).Liquid organic fertilizer already had macronutrient to support plant growth.In contrast, eco-enzyme that consist of high N,P,K from organic materials (fruit and vegetable waste) which fermented for three months required more time to assist the availability of nutrient from soil by enzymatic process [11].The application of eco-enzyme in plants can increase plant metabolism through biochemical and biological processes.Enzymes act as catalysts in photosynthetic reactions and respiration.Eco-enzyme 10 mL/L of water increased tuber weight of shallot [7].

Conclusion
Each rice cultivar showed different growth on seedlings as response to eco-enzyme and Liquid Organic Fertilizer.Red Jatiluwih and Red pulagan showed positive response to eco-enzyme 0.1%, but Mentik Susu showed positive response to commercial Liquid Organic Fertilizer 10%.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Rice seedlings height and root length after 14 days of germination using eco-enzyme and liquid organic fertilizer.

Table 1 .
Number of tiller and grain weight per plant for Red Rice Jatiluwih, Red Rice Pulagan and Mentik Susu with Eco-enzyme and Liquid Organic Fertilizer treatment