Role of nano-fertilizer on Greenhouse Gas Emission in Rice Soil Ecosystem

The mitigation of greenhouse gases from rice soils is one of the potential strategies to minimize the impact of climate change. This study focuses on the application of nano-zeolite based nitrogenous fertilizer in order to slow down the release of N from the fertilizer to reduce the emission of GHGs mainly methane. Nano-fertilizer carrying NO3- or NH4+ forms of nitrogen were synthesized using commercial nano-zeolite by fortifying two forms of N. Nitrogen release from the nano-zeolite loaded with (Nitrate and ammonical from of N were studied in percolation reactor. The data have shown that N release from the nano-fertilizer (NO3- or NH4+) forms of N were 11.6 and 20 days, respectively. While N release from conventional forms potassium nitrate and ammonium sulfate fertilizers were 8.7 and 12.9 days, respectively. Consequently, nano-fertilizer applied rice soil had lower N2O emission of (1.8) than conventional fertilizer (2.7 mg m-2 day-1). One of the striking effects was on methane emission was lower in nano-fertilizer applied soil (34.8) than control (36.8 mg m-2 day-1). These data clearly suggest that the nano-fertilizer assists in slow release of nitrogen that eventually resulted in reduction of emission of greenhouse gases (CH4 & N2O) from the rice soil ecosystem