Agronomic comparison between organic rice and biodynamic rice

Biodynamic agriculture is a type of organic agriculture which has been applied successfully to different crops, including rice. Due to the lack of published studies comparing biodynamic and organic rice, the objective of the present study was to compare the performance of rice ( Oryza sativa L.) under these two agronomical methods. Two varieties were transplanted mechanically in Pego-Oliva Natural Park (Alicante, Spain) under continuous flooding, without fertilization or rotation. Grain yield was not significantly different between methods of culture (4,188 vs 4,237 kg ha-1 under organic and biodynamic agriculture, respectively). In our study, grain yield was not significantly different between varieties either (4,228 vs 4,199 kg ha-1 for ‘Bomba’ and ‘Albufera’, respectively), but whole grain milling yield was higher in ‘Albufera’ than in ‘Bomba’ (66% vs 55.4%). It is concluded that in these conditions and with these varieties, both methods yield equally.

www.bdgrowing.com/mediaLibrary/files/PDF/BiodynamicRice.pdf).In Egypt, Sekem cooperative also grows biodynamic rice (Abouleish, 2004).Reganold et al. (1993) found that biodynamic farms had better soil quality than the neighbouring conventional farms with several crops (vegetables, apples, pears and cereals) in New Zealand.No literature was found comparing both methods in rice.
The objective of the present study was to compare the performance of rice (Oryza sativa L.) under two agronomical methods, organic and biodynamic.
The trials were set up under continuous flooding in Pego-Oliva marshland (38°52" 21' N 0°3" 47' O), a Natural Park which is flooded in winter for duck hunting; this prevents crop rotation.Soil properties are (Dominguis et al., 2007): loamy/clay-loamy texture; average oxidizable organic matter, 12.9%; mean N content 0.47%; 93.2 mg of available P kg -1 (Olsen method) and an average of 461 mg K + kg -1 .Since nutrient and organic matter contents were high, it was not considered necessary to apply any fertilisation in either culture.Rice was transplanted mechanically.The only difference between methods was that in the biodynamic plots, the following preparations were applied (Wistinghausen, 2000): -Preparations «Maria Thun» (named by its author, prepared in 20 min and directly applied to the soil) and «500» (cow dung inside cow horn, prepared in 60 min).Applications were made before transplanting, on dry soil, with a spray of big drops.
-Preparation «501» (silica inside cow horn, prepared in 60 min).Applied just after transplanting, when the plant had expanded three leaves.
In 2005, a preliminary test was made with the variety 'Bomba' (traditionally used for paella, a typical Spanish rice dish), comparing the grain yield of two adjacent plots (one organic and one biodynamic).Both plots were sown with seed from the same lot, harvested in 2004.
From 2007 to 2009, a replicated trial was set up with two varieties: 'Bomba' and 'Albufera'.'Albufera' is a recent variety obtained by the Rice Department (Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Agrarias, IVIA), with a culinary quality similar to 'Bomba', but shorter (it lodges less than 'Bomba').There were 4 replicates per treatment combination (16 plots in total).Each individual plot had four plant rows 13.5 m long, with 15 cm spacing between plants and 30 cm between rows.In order to avoid contamination of organic with biodynamic treatments (due to water runoff), organic plots were located closer to the entry of the irrigation channel (upstream) than biodynamic plots, with a separation of 3 m between treatments.The same field was used during the three years.In 2007, the seeds in the transplanted bed did not emerge properly and only 12 plots were transplanted.Grain yield (expressed at 14% relative humidity) and milling yield (both percentage in weight of whole grains -also called head riceand of broken grains after milling) were determined.
In the 2005 trial, grain yield means of both methods were statistically compared by the Student-t test.Results of 2007-2009 trial were submitted to unbalanced analysis of variance, where cropping methods were treated as two localities (they occurred in the same marked places throughout the three years).SAS statistical package was used (SAS Institute, 2002-2003).The percentage of broken grains after milling and the total milling yield (whole grain yield + percentage broken grains) were transformed by the square root, in order to normalize their distribution.
The mean grain yield in the 2005 test was similar under organic and biodynamic culture (4,987 and 4,962 kg ha -1 , respectively).
The analysis of variance of the 2007-2009 trials are shown in Table 1.Grain yield and total milling yield were at par in both the methods and varieties.In accordance with this, Carpenter-Boggs et al. (2000) found no significant differences in yield of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and lentil (Lens culinaris L.) cultured under organic versus biodynamic agriculture, although the yield of lentil per unit of plant biomass was higher.
Whole grain yield and the percentage of broken grains varied significantly between varieties: 'Albufera' kernels broke less in the mill than 'Bomba' kernels, and showed higher head rice recovery.
Table 2 shows the means of the variables showing significant Culture × Variety × Year interaction.The only significant differences between cultures occurred in two cases in 2009, favouring the biodynamic method: 'Albufera' yielded significantly more under biodynamic culture than under organic culture, while 'Bomba' had greater total milling yield under biodynamic culture than under organic culture.In 2009, grain yield was about half the yield in the other years.There are several reasons for this: first, a bad condition of the plantlets grown in the transplanting trays; second, the soil was not levelled and some transplanted plants got drowned; finally, there were more weeds than in other years.This affected more 'Bomba' than 'Albufera', and affected more the organic than the biodynamic plots.
In two other studies of organic rice, the first made in the same marsh, also with mechanical transplanting (Dominguis et al., 2007), the second made in the lake Albufera (Valencia) (Garcia et al., 2010), 'Albufera' was on average more productive than 'Bomba', but the difference was again not statistically significant.In these two trials, 'Albufera' also showed on average a higher whole grain yield and a lesser percentage of broken grains than 'Bomba' (but it was not significant in the first trial).Under conventional culture, 'Albufera' grains also break less in the mill than Bomba's, but in addition of that, grain yield is higher (Ballesteros, 2005).
It is concluded that, under the conditions of these trials, organic and biodynamic culture showed similar grain yield and milling yield in both varieties.