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

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