STUDIES ON COMPOSTING AQUASLUDGE AND ITS SUITABILITY TO DIFFERENT CROPS

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dc.contributor.advisorRAMACHANDRA RAO, G
dc.contributor.authorSRIKANTH, MANGALAPURI
dc.date.accessioned2019-06-21T09:26:57Z
dc.date.available2019-06-21T09:26:57Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.descriptionD5592en_US
dc.description.abstract“Studies on composting aquasludge and its suitability to different crops” was undertaken at the Department of Environmental Sciences, Advanced Post Graduate Centre, Lam, Guntur during 2017-18. The physico-chemical characteristics of aqua sludge, paddy straw and water hyacinth and also the best bulking material between paddy straw and water hyacinth was determined to make compost for use as organic fertilizer for its suitability to different crops. The aquasludge obtained from the three districts namely Nellore, Parkasam and Guntur in Andhra Pradesh was analyzed separately with standard procedures for pH, EC, organic carbon, total nitrogen, available nitrogen, available phosphorous, total potassium, Ca, Mg, S and micronutrients (Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu).The aquasludges collected from these three districts were found to be neutral in reaction (6.8, 6.5 and 6.7), with EC of (1.81, 2.05 and 1.59 dS m-1) and organic carbon (6.06, 6.71 and 6.24 %). Primary nutrients like total nitrogen, available nitrogen, available phosphorous and total potassium contents of aquasludges were (1.06, 1.97 and 0.77 per cent), (0.0368, 0.0573 and 0.0452 per cent), (0.0479, 0.0570 and 0.0520 per cent g Kg-1) and (0.176, 0.221 and 0.193 g Kg-1) respectively. Secondary nutrients like calcium, magnesium and sulphur contents of aqua sludge were 3.60, 4.18 and 3.08 g Kg-1, 2.73, 3.00 and 2.13 g Kg-1 and0.442, 0.5206 and 0.4 % respectively and micronutrients like Fe, Cu, Mn and Zn in aqua sludge were 36.16, 39.95 and 35.25 g Kg-1, 0.179, 0.191 and 0.173 g Kg-1 0.70, 0.79 and 0.59 g Kg-1 and 0.271, 0.364 and 0.338 g/Kg respectively. Currently, there are only few treatment options available for aqua sludge. Among them composting can provide a simple and cost effective method to treat the sludge and at the same time reuse excessive organic matter and nutrients for enhanced production of different crops. Composting study was conducted by mixing different proportions of aqua sludge with bulking materials like paddy straw and water hyacinth collected from Live Stock Research Station, Lam, Guntur and Agricultural College Farm, Bapatla respectively. Three sets of experiments were conducted using three different aqua sludge samples collected from Pantapalem (Nellore), Vetapalem (Praasam) and Karlapalem (Guntur) locations of Andhra Pradesh. Experiment was laid out in Completely Randomized Design with three replications and nine treatments comprising of T1-Aqua sludge alone 100% (control) ,T2-Aqua sludge 80% +paddy straw 20%, T3-Aqua sludge 70% + paddy straw 30%, T4-Aqua sludge 60% + paddy straw 40% , T5-Aqua sludge 80% + water hyacinth 20%, T6-Aqua sludge 70% + water hyacinth 30% , T7-Aqua sludge 60% + water hyacinth 40% , T8-Aqua sludge 70% + paddy straw10%+water hyacinth20% and T9-Aqua sludge 60% + paddy straw20%+water hyacinth20%. Three such sets were maintained to facilitate destructive sampling at 30 days of incubation and at 60 days after composting. Aqua sludge compost samples were analyzed for physico-chemical properties employing standard procedures. The results revealed that the aqua sludge compost pH became neutral with the end of composting process; while organic carbon of compost increased with increasing percentage of bulking materials. The pH and EC of treatments containing water hyacinth was significantly higher than those without water hyacinth in all the three sets of experiments. 30 days after incubation, the pH and EC increased gradually, later decreased but organic carbon gradually increased up to 60 days of composting. Total nitrogen and available nitrogen increased significantly with increasing percentage of bulking material in the three sets of experiments. Final values of total nitrogen at 60 days ranged from 1.02 to 1.79%, 1.47 to 2.68 and 0.61 to 1.38 % respectively. Available nitrogen also followed the same pattern as that of total nitrogen and the same trend was apparent. Total potassium (K), available- P, calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sulphur (S) and manganese (Mn) were significantly higher in treatments with Water hyacinth than treatments with Rice Straw used as bulking materials due to the initial composition of this material. Treatments with higher aqua sludge tended to have higher Zn, Cu and Fe. The same trend was apparent in all the three sets of experiments. A desirable organic fertilizer is rich in N, P and K, which is released into the soil over time. The results of the present study indicated that the final quality of aqua sludge compost in terms of nutrient content varied depending on the initial materials. Total nitrogen of final compost increased with increasing percentage of aqua sludge. Available P and total K of the final compost increased with increasing percentage of water hyacinth, which was expected because water hyacinth had higher available P and total K than aqua sludge and rice straw. The final micronutrients, pH and EC of the composts could also be explained by the initial aqua sludge, rice straw and water hyacinth. Thus the characteristics of initial materials seems to be a good indication of the quality of the compost produced. It was concluded that polluted aqua sludge from aqua ponds in these three districts could be effectively treated by composting and have potential for subsequent use as an agricultural fertilizers. Finally, compost made with aqua sludge was used to test the germination per cent, height and fresh weight of the three crops viz., bengal gram, cotton and black gram. In terms of germination %, height and fresh weight in sludge + paddy straw combinations T4 recorded the highest values. In sludge + water hyacinth combinations T7 recorded the highest values and sludge + paddy straw + water hyacinth combinations T8 recorded the highest values. T1 maintained as control containing 100 % aqua sludge showed lowest values of germination %, height and fresh weight of the three crops. A similar trend was followed in the three sets of experiments. Among nine aqua sludge composts T4 showed the best germination percentage, tallest in height and high in fresh weight of the three crops. Overall the results showed that paddy straw was the best bulking material when combined with 60:40 ratio of aqua sludge and paddy straw. Based on the results, it could be concluded that aqua sludge has a potential to be used as compost material when mixed with either rice straw or water hyacinth.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810109507
dc.keywordsCOMPOSTING, AQUASLUDGE, CROPSen_US
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.pages140en_US
dc.publisherAcharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural Universityen_US
dc.research.problemSTUDIES ON COMPOSTING AQUASLUDGE AND ITS SUITABILITY TO DIFFERENT CROPSen_US
dc.subEnvironmental Scienceen_US
dc.subjectnullen_US
dc.themeSTUDIES ON COMPOSTING AQUASLUDGE AND ITS SUITABILITY TO DIFFERENT CROPSen_US
dc.these.typeM.Scen_US
dc.titleSTUDIES ON COMPOSTING AQUASLUDGE AND ITS SUITABILITY TO DIFFERENT CROPSen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
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