Abstract

Rainfed rice fields in general often lack water and nutrients that are difficult for their roots to reach. The Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (VAM) fungus can assist in absorbing water and nutrients to increase the efficiency of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers. The purpose of this study was to determine the uptake of N, P, and K nutrients and the yield of rainfed lowland rice applied with VAM at different doses of N and P. This study was conducted in rainfed rice fields in Demangan, Central Java, Indonesia, during 2019. This research was laid out in completely randomized block design with two factors and three replications. The first factor was nitrogen with a dose of 0, 45, 90, and 135 kg/ ha, while the second factor was phosphorus at 0, 25, 50, and 75 kg/ha. The results showed that VAM could increase the uptake of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium and increase yield using N and P fertilizers at 90 kg/ha and 75 kg/ha, respectively. This research shows that the use of N and P fertilizers at 90 kg/ha and 75 kg/ha, respectively, is sufficient to cultivate rainfed rice applied with mycorrhizal fungi. Based on the discussion, it can be concluded that the application of mycorrhizae is beneficial in rainfed rice cultivation because it can suppress the use of N and P fertilizers by increasing the uptake of N, P and K nutrients and increasing yields. In addition, in rice cultivation in rainfed rice fields, it is better to use mycorrhizae.