Response of dairy farm’s wastewater irrigation and fertilizer interactions to soil health for maize cultivation in Bangladesh

Abstract

The study was conducted at the experimental field of the Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) to demonstrate the evidence of the suitability of dairy farm’s wastewater on soil properties in a maize field under three fertilizer doses and three irrigation treatments. Irrigation had three treatments - I₁: Irrigation with fresh water, I₂: Irrigation with mixed water (fresh water: dairy farm’s wastewater = 1:1) and I₃: Irrigation with raw wastewater. There were three fertilizer treatments - F₀: No fertilizer, F₁: Half of recommended dose fertilizer and F₂: Full dose fertilizer. Wastewater contained different nutrients and organic matter, which optimistically contributed to the soil in the maize field. Both irrigation and fertilizer treatments employed different degrees of influence on the soil health. For the effect of irrigation treatments, the highest values of EC (0.223 dS/m), pH (8.18), OC (0.3733 %), total N (0.046 %), P (7.65 ppm), K (33 .08 ppm), Ca (297.80 ppm) and Mg (109.9 ppm) were recorded under the treatment of I₃, I₁, I₁, I₁, I₃, I₁, I₂ and I₃, respectively, and the lowest values of the soil quality parameters were counted under the treatment of I₁, I₃, I₃, I₃, I₂, I₂, I_1, and I₂, respectively. In case of fertilizer treatments, the maximum values of the soil quality parameters were obtained under the treatment of F₂, F₂, F₀, F₁, F₂, F₁, F_1, and F₁, respectively, and the lowest values were obtained under the treatment of F₀, F₀, F₁, F₀, F₀, F₀, F₀, F₂, respectively. For the irrigation and fertilizer interactions, the maximum values of EC (0.250 dS/m), pH (8.20), OC (0.38 %), total N (0.059 %), P (8.37 ppm), K (48.0 ppm), Ca (374.9 ppm) and Mg (112.60 ppm) were recorded under the treatment combinations I₃F₀, I₁F₂, I₃F₂, I₁F₂, I₃F₂, I₃F₁, I₂F₀ and I₃F₂, respectively, and thye lowest values were recorded under the treatment combinations of I₂F₀, I₁F₀, I₁F₀, I₁F₀, I₂F₀, I₂F₀, I₂F₂ and I₂F₂, respectively.  Both the irrigation and fertilizer treatments and their combinations did not cause any significant variation in the quality parameters of the soil, except soil pH and phosphorus (P) content of the soil in the maize field.

Asian Australas. J. Biosci. Biotechnol. 2018, 3 (1), 33-39