Agronomic comparison between organic rice and biodynamic rice. Short communication.

Abstract

Biodynamic agriculture is a type of organic agriculture which has been applied successfully to different crops, including rice. Due to the lack of published studies comparing biodynamic and organic rice, the objective of the present study was to compare the performance of rice (Oryza sativa L.) under these two agronomical methods. Two varieties were transplanted mechanically in Pego-Oliva Natural Park (Alicante, Spain) under continuous flooding, without fertilization or rotation. Grain yield was not significantly different between methods of culture (4,188 vs 4,237 kg ha–1 under organic and biodynamic agriculture, respectively). In our study, grain yield was not significantly different between varieties either (4,228 vs 4,199 kg ha–1 for ‘Bomba’ and ‘Albufera’, respectively), but whole grain milling yield was higher in ‘Albufera’ than in ‘Bomba’ (66% vs 55.4%). It is concluded that in these conditions and with these varieties, both methods yield equally.