Studies on Growth and Yield Response of Jatropha curcas Plant on Fly Ash Amended Soil

ABSTRACT

Fly Ash (FA) is usually considered unfavorable to plant growth and its disposal has become a serious environmental issue. However, some studies on revegetation on fly ash dumps showed some agricultural potential of the fly ash. The present study attempts to judiciously utilize the waste fly ash as a soil amendment and assess the feasibility of growth of energy plants viz. Jatropha on fly ash amended soil in varying percentages (0%, 5%, 10%, 20%). The study primarily focuses on growth and yield to judge the suitable content of fly ash favoring plant growth. Plastochron Index (PI) and plant morphological characteristics are used to assess the growth whereas, the yield is assesses based on biomass and other parameters estimated after completion of the experimental duration. The growth and yield assessment indicated better sustenance of Jatropha plant on soil amended with 10% fly ash

KEYWORDS:

• Fly ash
• Jatropha curcas
• plastochron index
• agriculture
• growth
• yield response

Biographical note

Sandeep Jain is a Ph.D. student and teaching assistant in Civil Engineering Department at Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur.

Dr. A. R. Tembhurkar is Professor at Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur. His area of interest includes Municipal, Industrial and Advanced Water Treatment, Biomedical Waste Management, Solid Waste Management, and Resource Recovery, Industrial Pollution Control, Energy Conversion, and Environment, Software Development on Environmental Engineering systems.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.