Abstract
Phosphogypsum organic (PG organic) is a soil conditioner, derived from residues, water leach purification (WLP) and neutralisation underflow (NUF) from rare-earth metals processing in combination with composted organic material. There was no report available with regards to the effectiveness of this byproduct for crops improvement in a sandy soil texture. Therefore, a field trial involving a multi-crop was conducted by the addition of PG organic on a sandy texture soil for 23-month period. Guinea grass or guinea grass intercropping with teak wood trees, corn and kenaf showed an improvement in cumulative fresh yield in plot treated with PG organic either with a half- or full-fertilizer recommended rate for the respective crop as compared to control. The same trend was also observed in teak wood trees in hole planting systems and pandan coconut seedlings in the polybags. Application of PG organic in each season showed a consistently higher cumulative fresh yield or yield for certain crop types due to soil ability to maintain the soil pH buffering capacity (pH 5.8–6.0). Therefore, the application of PG organic as soil conditioner promotes plant growth and development due to the improvement of soil condition by creating suitable ecosystem for nutrients absorption by roots.
Highlights
Two types of residues, mainly water leach purification (WLP) and neutralisation underflow (NUF) are produced from the processing of rare-earth metals
To observe the effect of continuously added or residual PG organic, the data were averaged from three cuttings to represent each season (3-month period) and presented into half and full recommended rates of fertilizer for grass and the season of harvest with cumulative fresh yield (Table 4)
The trend showed that the plot receiving once 28 ton/ha PG organic was less than 5% lower as compared to the plot receiving 56 kg/ha
Summary
Mainly water leach purification (WLP) and neutralisation underflow (NUF) are produced from the processing of rare-earth metals. The NUF is highly rich in gypsum, it supplies great amounts of needed nutrients to the soil, including magnesium (Mg2+), sulphide (S2−), calcium (Ca2+) and phosphorus (PO4−3) [1]. A combination of WLP and NUF has the potential to improve soil nutrients by supplying nutrients (Ca2+, SO42−, Mg2+, PO4, PO42− and SO42−), reducing soil toxicity (SO42− reduces Al toxicity), changing soil mechanics (Ca2+ promotes flocculation in soil hardening process) and acting as a liming agent to increase pH of acidic soil for nutrient uptake. Our initial research has produced the best ratio of 2:1:7 of WLP, NUF and BRIS soil and/or composted oil palm empty fruit bunch (COPEFB) for agricultural purposes [2]
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