| dc.description.abstract | Serious efforts to achieve self sufficiency in rice to fullfil consumption of population growth in Indonesia become very important. One of the most important problems was the decrease of fertile land in Java along with significant numbers of land conversion to nonagricultural usage. One of the important effort to overcome this problem was utilizing peatlands outside Java. Utilizing of peatland for rice cultivation faces many problems such as soil acidity and toxicity of organic acid which effect to crop growth. Steel slag is a by-product furnace in the process of steel manufacturing. These materials can be used as liming material for improving chemical properties of peat soil. This research purposed to evaluate effect of steel slag on chemical properties of soils and also rice growth and yield. Research was carried out of pot experiment in greenhouse by using peat soils from Kumpeh, Jambi. Slags were applied in dosage 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5% or 0, 30, 60, 90, 120, and 150 g / pot, combined with NPK fertilizer in dosage 50 and 75% from standard, compared with control and standard. The result shows that steel slag significantly improved chemical properties of soils such as raised soil pH, exchangeable Ca and Mg, and available Mn in soils. Toxic heavy metal in rice and soils were given by NPK fertilizer treatment. Steel slag also significantly increased rice yield and growth, reduced unfilled spikelets, and also increased nutrient rate of Ca and Mg in crop. In addition, steel slag reduced usage of conventional fertilizer. This was shown by higher value of fertilizer efficiency on steel slag treatment. | en |
