Soil pollution through industrial effluent and its management

Abstract

During the survey of sewer water/industrial effluent composition, we identified a site at Sonepat that had turned barren due to excessive irrigation with cycle industry effluent. To study the ameliorative effect of farmyard manure, the bulk surface soil sample was brought from the site. Soil was amended with five levels of farmyard manure (0, 0.25, 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0% on a soil weight basis), and carrot, fenugreek, spinach, and wheat crops were grown as test crops in a screen house. The deleterious effect of excessive heavy metals, particularly Ni, on the yield of all the crops was reduced with the application of 2% farmyard manure. The Ni content was highest in carrot, followed by spinach, fenugreek, and wheat. With the application of 2% farmyard manure, Ni content was reduced from 434 to 267 mg/kg in carrot, 167 to 100 mg/kg in fenugreek, 300 to 166 mg/kg in spinach, and 65 to 42 mg/kg in wheat grain.

Key words:

• farmyard manure
• carrot
• fenugreek
• spinach
• wheat
• Ni content