Co-cultivation of fern with biochar and varied irrigation levels for reduced arsenic accumulation in rice grains - with focus on co-cultivation of ferns with rice

• Main Author: Wickramasuriya, Davin Jia Jun
• Other Authors: Grzegorz Lisak
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Engineering; Arsenic; Rice
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/177134
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Rice is a staple food in Asia, with 90 percent of the rice in the world being consumed and produced in Asia. The presence of arsenic in rice is becoming more widespread. With the consumption of arsenic leading to health issues in the long run, trying to reduce the absorption of arsenic by a staple that is consumed daily by the masses is key. The objective of this study is to find out how the planting of ferns alongside rice could affect the amount of arsenic absorbed by the rice plants. To investigate the ability of ferns to absorb arsenic from soil, 5 different sets of experiments were set up, with the variables being the presence of ferns growing in tandem with the rice plants and whether the plants and ferns were growing in arsenic contaminated soil. The growth of the rice plants and the ferns were tracked from germination until the rice was ready for harvesting, with the constant measurement of the height and length of the plants and ferns throughout the experiment period. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to detect and monitor the amount of trace elements, including minor nutrients and arsenic contents in the rice plants, the ferns and the soil. The results of the experiments indicated that the co-cultivation of rice seedlings alongside ferns resulted in a reduction in the amount of arsenic absorbed by the rice seedlings.