Effect of Biochar On Growth, Dry Matter Yield and Nutrition of Corn Grown in Sandy loam soils of Gujarat, India
min ₹2500 INR / hour
Intensive agriculture often has resulted in soil physical and chemical degradation, due to erosion and higher output than input rates of nutrients and organic matter. The major factors contributing to the low and declining crop responses to fertilizer nutrients are continuous nutrient mining from the soil due to imbalanced nutrient use leading to depletion of some of the major, secondary and micronutrients, decreasing use of organic nutrient sources and integration of green manures/grain legumes in the cropping systems and mismanagement of irrigation systems leading to serious soil degradation qualitatively. Such decline in soil fertility status is likely to end with irreversible damage to the nutrient supply system if followed further and could impact production costs with serious environmental consequences.
In tropical climate, there is rapidly depletion of organic carbon in sandy and sandy loam soils owing to high temperature and these soils have coarse texture so poor in fertility. Biochar amendment improved sandy soil hydraulic properties and nutrient retention. Biochar is stable product so it remains in a soil for a longer period about 50-100 years whereas there is need to apply organic manures, compost, cakes etc, in soil every/alternate years to soil fertility. Biochar has the potential to either alleviate pressure on land use (by increasing crop yields). The burning of crop residues is rampant in north-western part of India causing huge environmental pollution and nutrient losses. If these residues are converted into biochar either through low-cost pyrolysis kiln and the biochar produced in this process could be applied to soil for carbon sequestration and enhancing soil fertility.
Investigation was comprised of sixteen treatments; 4 organic sources (3 biochar; corn stover biochar (MS), cluster bean stover (CB) & Prosopis julifera wood (PJ) and 1 farmyard manure-FYM) with two rate of application (one at 5 metric tons/ha & another at 10 metric tons/ha), so there were eight treatments of organic sources. The recommended dose of fertilizer (RDF) (80-40-0 kg/ha N-P-K) was applied in 8 treatments of organic sources whereas remaining 8 organic treatments were without RDF. Biochar was prepared through slow chemical pyrolysis process. Soil physical and biological properties were assessed with the standard procedure/method and 48 -randomized soil and plant samples were collected for chemical analyses. Application of corn stover biochar @ 10 metric tons/ha along with RDF (RDF+MS10) increased dry matter yield, crude protein yield, chlorophyll content and plant height (at 30 and 60 days after sowing) as compared to CB and PJ biochar and FYM. In case of various biochar studied, soil application of corn stover biochar @ 10 metric tons/ha along with the recommended dose of chemical fertilizers (RDF+MS10 ) was found most effective treatment in obtaining significantly higher dry matter and crude protein yields and larger removal of nutrients from the soil and it also beneficial for built up nutrients in soil.
Project ID: #7879600
