■Enriched Coal Ash Utilization for Augmenting Production of Rice Under Acid Lateritic Soil

Abstract

The use of industrial wastes such as fly ash (FA) or rice husk ash (RHA), along with paper factory sludge (PFS), farmyard manure (FYM), and chemical fertilizers (CF), under integrated nutrient management, was studied in acid lateritic soil on rice. Application of combined fertilization sources increased growth, yield attributes, and yield (up to 92.3 and 9.7% over control and CF, respectively) of wet season rice. The uptake of N, P, K, Ca, Mg, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, and Co was increased under combined fertilization sources. The study also indicated that such integrated plant nutrition system improved physico-chemical properties of soil with respect to bulk density, pH, electrical conductivity, organic carbon, and available nutrient content. Utilization of these wastes saved chemical fertilizers to the extent of 37.8, 59.7, and 86.5% N, P, and K respectively, with an added advantage of minimizing environmental pollution. f 2010 The University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research and the American Coal Ash Association All rights reserved. A R T I C L E I N F O Article history: Received 15 March 2010; Received in revised form 29 May 2010; Accepted 14 June 2010