Studying the use of cellulose, silica and lignin extracted from rice straw as sandy soil conditioners

<p>Rice straw is a renewable natural resource was recycled as an agricultural waste containing some natural biopolymers.<br>The study aims to evaluate the rice straw (RS) as well as straw ash (RA), Cellulose, Silica and Lignin<br>extracted from the straw as environment friendly agricultural sandy soil conditioners. Some properties of these<br>polymers are expected to affect some properties of soil as well as the macro-nutrient uptake by plant. The<br>mentioned materials were extracted from RS then mixed with two soil samples different in their properties<br>selected for the study and some of their properties were estimated. Soya bean and maize were germinated in<br>different soil/conditioner mixtures and their nutritional content, NPK total content was estimated and the data<br>were statistically analyzed. For the non-calcareous soil sample, the BD showed a relative decrease in the range<br>3.46% – 12.64% while the TP increased in the range 4.97 – 18.06% and the relative decrease in HC was in the<br>range 5.63 and 91.82%. The accumulation of soluble salts, available and total NPK concentrations had been<br>affected. The chemical structure of the studied biopolymers possessing functional groups (‒NH, ‒OH, ‒COOH)<br>and partial solubility of silica may offer chemical bonding and/or some other interaction with the different<br>nutritional ions and adsorption sites affecting their solubility and availability within soil. The remediation effect<br>is strongly dependent on the soil texture and salinity levels denoting to the chemical equilibria of the soil solution,<br>accumulation of the soluble salts, nutrients in soil and the nutrient uptake by plants.