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Two pot experiments were conducted to study the effect of silicon application on growth, yield and uptake of rice plant, to observe the response of silicon fertilization in relation to two different soils and to evaluate the optimum rate of silicon fertilizer for rice production in each soil during dry and wet season, 2019 at Department of Soil and Water Science, YAU. The experiment was laid out in split plot design with four replications. The main plots were soil types; Shwebo and Yezin soils and sub plots were levels of silicon with Si 0, Si 100, Si 150, Si 200 and Si 250 kg·ha-1. Urea, T-super and Potash fertilizers were applied at recommended dose of DAR (85:12:31 kg·ha-1 NPK). The calcium silicate fertilizer was used as a silicon source. In dry season, Shwebo soil provided the higher tiller numbers, grain yield, straw yield and nutrient uptake than Yezin soil. In both seasons, panicle numbers per hill were higher in Shwebo soil and panicle length and spikelets per panicle were higher in Yezin soil. The effect of silicon application on grain yield and Si uptake was found in the second season. The maximum grain yield was achieved from the application of Si 250 kg·ha-1 which was not statistically different from the application of Si 200 kg·ha-1. According to this study, the application of Si 200 kg·ha-1 in combination with the recommended dose of NPK fertilizers could be used to give the optimum grain yield in two soils. Silicon uptake of rice was significantly increased by all the silicon levels compared to control in two soils. A significant interaction was not observed in all parameters in this study.

Microbial diversity of cultivated soil is the key resource for maintaining the functional capacity of agricultural and natural ecosystem. The research aimed to study the prevalence of soil fungi from the soils of rice and napier grass fields. Soil samples were collected from the fields of rice in flooded condition and napier grass in the upland condition at the University farm. Soil fungi were cultured on RB media through the serial dilution method. A total of 13 isolates were cultured, in which 11 from the soil collected from rice cultivated field and 2 from napier grass field. Seven out of 11 isolates collected from rice and 2 from napier grass were selected and identified through the morphological characters such as colony color, mycelium diameter, color and segmentaiton, spore size and color. Mycelium growths were examined on the PDA and RB media. Fungal isolates collected in this study were morphologically identified/ characterized as Aspergillus niger, A. flavus, A. terreus, A. carbonarius, A. nidulans, Alternaria sp., Penicillium and Talaromyces. Fungal species differed among the soils were discussed.