EFFECT OF CHEMICALIZED FARMING ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY IN MID-HILLS OF HIMACHAL PRADESH
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Date
2017-09
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UHF,NAUNI
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The present investigation entitled “Effect of chemicalized farming on environmental quality in mid-hills of
Himachal Pradesh” was conducted during the year 2016-17 in the Department of Environmental Science, Dr. Y.S. Parmar
University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, Himachal Pradesh. In order to identify the impact of different farming
systems on soil and water quality in mid-hills of Solan district of HP four locations: Solan, Kandaghat, Chail and Nauni and
six farming systems namely, traditional, organic, polyhouse, vegetable, flower and orchard were selected. Accordingly in
total there were six treatments which were replicated four times under Randomized Block Design. In the region farming
system wise variation in physico- chemical and microbiological properties indicated that practices under such systems has
induced variations, however, found within the permissible range. The bacteria, fungi, and actinomycetes counts under
selected systems ranged from 67.25×104 to 92.67×104 , 4.75×103 to 8.17×103 and 29.17×104 to 41.17×104 cfu/g soil and soil
microbial biomass ranged from 310.69 to 459.63 μg kg-1 In soil, available NPK ranged from 291.74 to 416.25, 21.64 to
38.41 and 309.08 to 408.23 kg ha-1, respectively, and exchangeable Ca, Mg, and available S ranged from 3.71 to 7.40 cmol
(p+)/kg, 1.35 to 2.24 cmol (p+)/kg and 42.07 to 56.60 kg ha-1 under different farming systems. The farming systems of mid
hills has been noticed to enhance the build up of toxic metals such as such as Fe, Mn, Cd, Cr, Cu and Pb in the soil above the
permissible limits as prescribed by BSI (1992) and WHO (1993), except for Zn. The farming systems like flower, traditional,
vegetable and orchard represented poor soil quality with respective values of 0.44, 0.45, 0.47, 0.48 and organic, and
polyhouse were found be in medium range with the values of 0.60 and 0.58. The pH and EC of the water ranged from 7.63
to 7.76 and 0.24 to 0.40 dSm-1, respectively, and was within the normal range. The BOD and COD of water ranged from
0.78 to 1.63 and 17.50 to 32.53 mg l-1, chloride and nitrate ranged from 14.78 to 27.19 and 4.55 to 11.13 mg l-1, respectively,
the values of BOD, chloride and nitrate was within the permissible limit whereas, COD was above the permissible limit as
prescribed by BSI and WHO in all the systems except for organic farming. The heavy metals like Cd, Cr and Pb in water
sources around the farming systems were within the range of 0.00 to 0.03, 0.05 to 0.40 and 0.03 to 0.14 mg l-1 which were
above the permissible limits as prescribed by BSI and WHO, except for Zn and Fe. Therefore, on the basis of the present
study it is concluded that in mid-hills of Solan district of HP the different farming systems has started impacting the soil and
water quality and hence necessary measures need to be taken in time.
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