Assessment of the impact of treated and untreated Sewage water on growth and productivity of Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L. Moench)

Abstract

During the summer of 2018, an experiment was done at the Agronomy Field Unit, College of Agriculture, Navile, Shivamogga, and Karnataka. Okra (cv. Arka Anamika) is primarily grown for its fruits and used as a vegetable because its fruits and leaves contain calcium, iron, proteins, and vitamins, all of which are dietary supplements required for a basic diet. Vegetable demand is higher in urban areas even though they are grown in sewage water and are better for human consumption. As a result, okra was chosen as the test crop, and it was watered with Normal Water (NW), Treated Sewage Water (TSW), and Untreated Sewage Water (UTSW) separately and in conjunctive mode, resulting in nine treatments reproduced three times using the RCBD design. The treated and untreated sewage water obtained from college where it is created in huge amounts and on a continual basis. To grow the crops, the recommended package was followed. In comparison to the application of NW, TSW and UTSW irrigation changed the soil’s chemical properties. The results indicated that TSW application resulted in a larger height (168.50), number of leaves (33.00), and number of branches (4.47). However, sewageirrigated soils were much below the salinity threshold, resulting in improved crop growth components and yield. TSW application resulted in a higher fruit production of 32.35 t ha-1 compared to NW (25.20 t ha-1) and UTSW applications (21.61 t ha-1). It's also worth noting that in the conjunctive mode of application, one or two times of NW application fb TSW in cyclic mode resulted in yields of 28.12 and 29.22 t ha-1, respectively, putting them closer to those of plots getting TSW. It also opens the way to the conclusion that sewage water derived from campus has the fewest influencing factors, affecting crop growth insignificantly, and indicating its prospective usage.