Abstract
Soil salinity is a major concern in southwestern part of Bangladesh because almost 30% cultivable lands are currently lying under risk of salinity where 30-50% yields loss is happening. Organic amendments have found to be effective in the amelioration of saline soil by improving soil physical and chemical properties as well as crop selection is another criteria for sustaining viability of crops in saline soil. For ensuring sustainable saline soil management, a comparative pot study was carried out during kharif 1 season in 2015 to observe the effect of organic amendments (solid waste, vermicompost and cow dung) on soil salinity and its influence on the growth of maize. Composite soil was collected at a depth of 0-15 cm from Gozalmari village of Jalma Union in Batiaghata Upazila under Khulna district, Bangladesh that was saline (10.6 dS/m) in nature and the irrigation water sample was collected from beside Kazibacha river (4.28 dS/m) that was also moderately saline. The maize cultivar “Shuvra” was used for cultivation in the study. The experiment comprised of four treatments viz. T0: Control (No organic manure); T1: Solid waste (36g); T2: Vemicompost (72g); T3: Cow dung (33g). Five seeds were sown in each pot. Seeds were treated with Agrosan GN to protect them from seed and soil borne pathogens. Chemical fertilizers were not used in the experiment. Irrigation was done two times before harvesting: at 20 days after sowing (DAS) and at 40 DAS with river water and rain water was irrigated naturally during the season. Findings were that the organic amendments significantly influence the physico-chemical properties of the saline soil. All organic treated soils significantly reduce the soil EC (from 10.6 dS/m to 3.4 dS/m) and pH (from 7.63 to 7.38) compared to control soil (p?0.05). In case of survival parameters (e.g %gemination, rate of survival at 50 DAS) of maize, the treatments were found insignificant (p?0.05). But in terms of growth parameter (plant height and root length), significant differences were found between control and organic amendments treated soil (p?0.05). It may be concluded that organic amendments treated soils showed better results than that of control soil. If proper management can be implemented, this positive results will bring hope to the local poor farmers at least can introduce a new crop in fallow agricultural land during the kharif 1 season.
Highlights
Soil salinity is a major concern to agriculture because it affects almost all plant functions [1]
The highest pH value (7.63) was observed in initial control soil whereas the lowest pH value (7.38) was observed in Vermicompost (VC) treated soil at matured stage. pH results revealed that application of Solid waste (SD) and VC were statistically insignificant with other treatments but Cow dung (CD) showed the significant difference with control (Fig. 2, p≤0.05)
Though the average seed germination rate was higher in organic amendment treated soil but statistically they were insignificant among the treatments (Fig. 3, p≤0.05)
Summary
Soil salinity is a major concern to agriculture because it affects almost all plant functions [1]. Most of the lands remain fallow in the Kharif-1 season (January–May) because of increasing soil salinity and the lack of good-quality irrigation water [3,4] Both organic and inorganic amendments are found to be effective in the amelioration of saline soils. Maize (Zea mays) is the third most important cereal crop after rice and wheat in Bangladesh and is grown under a wide spectrum of soil and climatic conditions It is an important C4 plant from the Poaceae family and is moderately sensitive to salt stress [8]. If proper amendments can be introduced, the farmers can be benefited by introducing a new crop in fallow agricultural field during the Kharif 1 season Due to this reason, a scientific study was undertaken to determine the effect of solid waste, vermicompost and cow dung as organic amendments on the saline soil and its influence on the growth of maize
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