BACKGROUNDDry cultivation of rice is a water‐saving, emission reduction, and labor‐saving rice farming method. However, the development of rice under dry cultivation is hampered by the limitations of dry cultivation on rice yield and rice quality. We hypothesized that additional silicon (Si) would be a measure to address these limitations or challenges.RESULTSIn this study, we set up field trials with three treatments: flooded cultivation (W), dry cultivation (D) and dry cultivation plus silicon (DS). Yield and quality were reduced under D treatment compared to W treatment. The addition of silicon promoted root development, increased plant height and leaf area, increased photosynthetic enzyme activity, Pn and SPAD values, and increased biomass under dry crop conditions. Under the drought conditions, silica up‐regulated the expression of AGPSI, SBEI, SBEIIb, SSI and SSII‐1 genes and the activities of AGPase, SSS and SBE enzymes, which reduced protein (PC), amylose (AC), chalkiness percentage (CP) and chalkiness degree (CD), increased brown rice rate (BR), milled rice rate (MR) and head milled rice rate (HMR), and improved rice quality. In addition, the increase of AGPase, SSS and SBE enzyme activities promoted the filling rate, and the number of spikes was guaranteed while the yield was improved by promoting the seed setting rate and 1000‐grain weight.CONCLUSIONThe results indicate that adding appropriate amounts of silicon fertilizer can improve the yield and quality of rice under dry cultivation by regulating source supply capacity and grain starch synthesis.This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.