Abstract
Arbitrary cultivation of vacant land, even within the periphery of cottage industries in developing countries, particularly in Nigeria, is on the increase. Two maize varieties [ART98/SW1 (protein) and BR-9928-DMR-SR-Y (non-protein)] were planted within the vicinity of a metal recycling plant in Ile-Ife, Nigeria to assess the metal removal potentials of these maize cultivars. The experiment was conducted in two locations, each per maize variety and laid out in a randomised complete block design. Two biochars produced from maize stover and Milicia exelsa, each at 10 t ha-1 were used as soil amendments. Metal uptake by the two maize varieties was in the order: root > shoot > grain, with protein maize having higher bioconcentration factors: Fe 86.82, Zn 1.19, Cu 4.53, Mn 2.42 and Pb 0.15, and hence, a pathway through which animals, including humans could ingest these metals. It was concluded that maize crop is a bioaccumulator of metals in soil, and protein maize cultivar removes more metals than non-protein maize. Keywords: Biochar; farm waste; heavy metal; maize; particulate matter; remediation
Highlights
IntroductionIn Nigeria, peri-urban agriculture is increasing. This trend in agri-business enhances the cultivation of many vacant lands with arable crops such as cereals and vegetables
The concentration of metals in the roots, shoots and grains of the two maize varieties cultivated on the metal-contaminated soil, it was observed that metals differed considerably in uptake from each other with Fe having the highest uptake concentration values
Varietal differences in maize and differences in the Chemistry of these metals could be the cause. This observation was comparable to Khairul et al (2015) who among other metals studied, observed the highest accumulation of Fe but lowest for Cu in maize crops planted on metal-contaminated soil
Summary
In Nigeria, peri-urban agriculture is increasing. This trend in agri-business enhances the cultivation of many vacant lands with arable crops such as cereals and vegetables. Trace amounts of these heavy metals such as Selenium (Se), Arsenic (As), Chromium (Cr), Copper (Cu) and Zinc (Zn) are required by living organisms, but become extremely toxic above certain threshold levels (Panda & Choudhury, 2005) and very detrimental to human health (Amdur et al, 1991; Pirkle et al, 1998).
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