Abstract
The current study is focuses on a sustainable agricultural ecosystem for soil fertility and human health improvement. To estimate the effects of applying organic amendments (compost, vermicompost, biochar, organic manure and rapeseed cake) on crop growth of maize and nutrient uptake in calcareous soil, eleven treatments were studied, which included compost (CM), cow manure vermicompost (CMV), pig manure vermicompost (PMV), biochar vermicompost (BCV), biochar (BC), conventional synthetic fertilizers (NPK), CMV in addition to NPK (CMV + NPK), and PMV in addition to NPK (PMV + NPK), organic manure (OM), rapeseed cake (RC) and control without any fertilization (CK). Maize above and belowground biomass were analyzed in glass greenhouse experiments. The results showed that nitrogen and carbon contents showed significant differences among treatments. Vermicompost significantly showed higher biomass as compared to inorganic fertilizers except for RC. All vermicompost treatments also showed better nutrient availability as compared to NPK and CK. In conclusion, vermicompost with all substrates are recommended for application as organic fertilizers. Our study will help promote the application of organic fertilizers alone or in combination with inorganic fertilizers rather than only inorganic fertilizers for environmental health and sustainability.
Highlights
Nitrogen (N) is crucial for living organisms, while it is a limiting element for the larger crop production to feed the growing population
Our results showed that the application of organic amendments such as compost, vermicompost promoted the crop biomass as compared to NPK
The adoption of organic amendments produced from organic waste materials by vermicomposting is a win-win approach to fulfil the four important criteria of reduce, recycle, reuse and recovery, to reduce environmental pollution and provide a sustainable agricultural system Based on the results of this study we can make the following conclusions: (1)
Summary
Nitrogen (N) is crucial for living organisms, while it is a limiting element for the larger crop production to feed the growing population. Recycling of agricultural waste materials containing macro-and micro-nutrients for crop growth is an alternative to synthetic fertilizers and for improving soil fertility. As concern about environment-related issues have grown, the large human population produces an excess amount of organic waste. 1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted every year [2], and if global wastes were considered to be a country it would represent the 3rd biggest producer of greenhouse gas emissions in the world [3]. The population of the world has experienced tremendous growth from 3.1 billion to 7 billion (2010)
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