Mitigation of Salinity Stress in Rice with Compost

Increasing salinity is a significant problem for crop production land. Overcoming salinity in an environmentally friendly and sustainable manner is necessary to increase agricultural production and cope with the increasing population and food needs. Using organic amendments from agricultural waste is a solution for dealing with waste and improving soil properties and crop yields. Salinity can be overcome by adding 5-10 t ha-1 compost at a salinity level of 2000-10000 ppm (NaCl). At 10.000 ppm, tillers increased from 2.67 in the no-compost treatment to 9 in applying 10 t ha-1 of compost. An increase in the dose of compost reduced the number of dry leaves. At a salinity level of 8000 ppm, dried leaves decreased from 11.67 in the treatment without compost to 6.67 in the 5 tha-1 treatment. The application of compost can increase the yield potential of rice at different salinity levels. At the level of 8000 ppm, the application of compost increased the yield potential from 1.13 t ha-1 to 6.16 t ha-1. Compost can be recommended as a soil amendment to increase rice yields under 8000 ppm. Compost is an alternative soil amendment to overcome salinity and sustainably increase rice production. Using compost increases soil fertility, overcomes salinity, and handles agricultural wastes in the zero-waste concept.