Biochar Integrated Nutrient Application Improves Crop Productivity, Sustainability and Profitability of Maize–Wheat Cropping System (original) (raw)
Related papers
FORMULATION OF BIOCHAR BASED FERTILIZER FOR IMPROVING MAIZE PRODUCTIVITY AND SOIL FERTILITY
Incorporation of biochar to agriculture field has the potential to be a primary factor in maintaining soil fertility and productivity particularly in nitrogen and organic matter limiting environments. Clear experimental evidences to support this view, however, are still lacking. Keeping in view the significance of biochar and limited information on its role in crop production, the current experiments were designed to evaluate the potential use of biochar in crop production for 2 years. The experiment consisted of three factors namely: (1) Biochar (0, 25 and 50 ton ha-1), (2) FYM (5 and 10 ton ha-1) and (3) nitrogen (75 and 150 kg ha-1). A control treatment (all at nil level) was included in the experiment for comparison. All the treatments were replicated three time in RCB design at New Developmental Farm of the University of Agriculture Peshawar Pakistan. As per expectation inorganic N and FYM application increased maize yield in comparison to control. Furthermore, BC treatments increased maize grain ear-1 and grain yield by 21 and 11% over no BC treatments (where FYM and N was applied but no biochar) while caused 29 and 35% in comparison to control respectively. Similarly, maize biological yield was increased by 14 and 39% over no BC and control treatments respectively. Beside crop yield, soil properties like carbon content, N status, Phosphorus, crop N uptake and crop P uptake was significantly increased by BC treatment over no BC treatment. Overall, application of BC showed convincing results as compared to sole application of N and FYM, however, problems associated with BC production in Pakistan are needed to be addressed in future research.
Field Crops Research, 2017
Low and declining soil organic matter contents pose a significant threat to soil fertility, crop productivity and economic returns in arid and semi-arid agroecosystems. Holistic approaches are required to build and sustain soil organic matter in such soils to enhance nutrient use efficiencies and meet food security. Biochar is emerging as an attractive option for multiple benefits to soil-plant systems and carbon sequestration, especially in low fertility soils. We conducted a two-year maize-wheat rotation field experiments during 2015 and 2016 to test the effects of biochar on crop productivity, soil properties and phosphorous use efficiency (PUE) when applied with organic P sources as either farmyard manure (FYM) or poultry manure (PM) and diammonium phosphate (DAP) chemical fertilizer. Biochar was applied at two rates (0 and 10 t ha −1) whereas percentage of organic-inorganic P sources were 0, 25, 50 and 100% respectively. Biochar and manures were incorporated only once at the start of the field experiments whereas chemical fertilizers were applied during each crop cycle. Analysis of the two-year data revealed that biochar and P sources significantly and positively changed crop and soil quality attributes. Application of biochar significantly increased biological and grain yields of maize and wheat, soil organic carbon (SOC), and available nitrogen (N) and P contents without any negative effects on soil pH and electrical conductivity (EC). Addition of 50% P each from organic (FYM or PM) and chemical fertilizer increased biological and grain yields of maize, however, wheat biological and grain yields were higher with 100% PM or FYM in the presence of biochar. SOC and P contents were the highest when biochar was integrated with 100% P from FYM under maize crop. Biochar enhanced PUE from organic P sources more than the chemical fertilizer for both crops. Grain and biological yields of both crops correlated positively with SOC, soil N and soil P contents. We also found strong correlations between SOC, PUE and harvest index (HI) suggesting the benefits of increasing SOC contents under biochar-related integrated nutrient management practices. Overall results from these field experiments indicate potential of biochar to enhance plant nutrition, crop productivity and soil quality in nutrient poor alkaline calcareous soil under maize-wheat cropping system. Long-term farmers' participatory field experiments, however, are required to extrapolate the potential of biochar integrations into current cereal-based cropping systems of Pakistan. (Vagen et al., 2005; Jones et al., 2013). Combating poverty and hunger of an exponentially growing population is a major challenge of agricultural sector in Pakistan (Ali et al., 2015). There is a need of revising the current agricultural management practices with a view of improving nutrient supply, demand and recycling for better farmer income and soil quality (Delate and Camberdella, 2004; Lal, 2013). Recycling of nutrients from organic sources into the soil is a
Soil Use and Management, 2020
Biochar amendments offer promising potential to improve soil fertility, soil organic carbon (SOC), and crop yields; however, a limited research has explored these benefits of biochar in the arid and semi-arid regions. This two-year field study investigated the effects of Acacia tree biomass-derived biochar, applied at 0 and 10 t ha-1 rates with farmyard manure (FYM) or poultry manure (PM) and mineral phosphorus (P) fertilizer combinations (100 kg P ha-1), on maize (Zea mays L.) productivity, P use efficiency (PUE) and farm profitability. The application of biochar with organic-inorganic P fertilizers significantly increased soil P and SOC contents than the sole organic or inorganic P fertilizers. Addition of biochar and PM as 100% P source resulted in the highest soil P (104% increase over control) and SOC contents (203% higher than control). However, maize productivity and PUE was significantly higher under balanced P fertilization (50% organic + 50% mineral fertilizer) with biochar and the increase was 110, 94, 170% than 100%-FYM, 100%-PM and 100% mineral fertilizer, respectively. Maize productivity and yield correlated significantly positively with soil P and SOC contents These positive effects were possibly due to the ability of biochar to improve soil properties, P availability from organic-inorganic fertilizers and SOC which resulted in higher PUE and maize productivity. Despite of the significant positive relationship of PUE with net economic returns, biochar incorporation with PM and mineral fertilizer combination was economically profitable whereas FYM along biochar was not profitable due to short duration of the field experiments.
Journal of Environmental Biology, 2017
Integrated use of organic and inorganic fertilizers has better effects on crop growth and yield components of crop as well as soil health than alone. The main objective of the study was to find out the impact of integrated nutrient management on yield and soil health in maize-wheat cropping system. The maize crop was harvested when cob sheath turned brownish and grains became hard and grains were separated from cobs by hand shelling. When wheat crop matured and dry plants from net-1 plot area were harvested and threshing was done by using wheat thresher and expressed as t ha. The soil samples were collected from different plots of the experimental field and were analysed for physical (bulk density, hydraulic conductivity) and chemical (organic carbon, available N, P and K) properties. Infiltration rate was measured at the experimental field with the help of double ring infiltrometer. Addition of NPK fertilizer along with organic manure and biofertilizers improved yield and increased organic carbon content, available N, P, K and infiltration rate and hydraulic conductivity of the soil while reducing bulk density. Application of 50% recommended dose of fertilizer + 50% recommended dose of nitrogen produced significantly higher maize grain yield and significantly higher wheat grain yields were recorded with the application of 100% recommended dose of fertilizer over control. Lowest bulk density, highest hydraulic conductivity and infiltration rate were recorded with the application of 37.5% recommended dose of fertilizer + 37.5% recommended dose of nitrogen + biofertilizer to wheat. Application of 50% recommended dose of fertilizer + 50% recommended dose of nitrogen to maize and application of 37.5% recommended dose of fertilizer + 37.5% recommended dose of nitrogen + bio fertilizer to wheat resulted in increased available N by 10.
Soil Science and Plant Nutrition
Biochar application has been considered as a rich source of carbon which helps to improve the physicochemical properties and fertility of the soil. In Pakistan, excessive use of nitrogen fertilizer is considered a serious problem, so it is of vital importance to examine the effect of biochar on soil with varying doses of nitrogen fertilizer. We hypothesized that addition of biochar to an alkaline calcareous soil could improve not only soil quality and crop yield but also nitrogen use efficiency (NUE), reducing the loss of nitrogen (N) in the form of denitrification, ammonia volatilization, and nitrate leaching. A pot experiment was conducted under 2-factorial completely randomized design having three replications to evaluate the NUE in biochar amended calcareous soil. Biochar was applied at the rate of 0%, 1% and 2% (w/w) in pots filled with 17 kg of soil using various levels of N (0%, 50% and 100% of recommended dose) on maize (Zea mays L.). Several soil quality indicators, uptake, and yield of maize were monitored. Biochar application significantly decreased soil pH, increased water-holding capacity, total organic carbon, maize yield, stomatal conductance, and nitrogen uptake in plant. The results of the study indicated that addition of biochar could not only decrease the use of inorganic fertilizers by improving its quality and yield as in our case biochar at the rate of 1% and N at the rate of 50% provided optimum output minimizing the economic cost eventually.
Journal of nutrients, 2015
Over applications of inorganic fertilizers lead nutrient imbalances, inefficiency and environmental contamination while insufficient application of nutrients causes soil fertility depletion. This problem drives the use of organic manures, which supply balanced micro and macro nutrients to the current crop and also leave a substantial residual effect on the succeeding crops in different cropping systems. But it is required in bulk as it contains nutrients in small proportion. Hence its availability is scarce for large farms. Therefore, to eliminate both excessive and inadequate applications, judicious use of integrated nutrient management is best alternative for sustainable crop productivity while maintaining soil fertility status in maize and other cereal based cropping systems. Such integrated applications have complementary and synergistic effects. Various research results have confirmed that INM improves sustainable crop productivity and soil fertility status rather than organic or mineral fertilizers alone. Most of research findings reviewed in this paper indicated that among the alternative integrated nutrient management combinations, application of chemical fertilizers integrated with organic manures in equal proportion significantly improved sustainable crop productivity, nutrient uptake and soil nutrient status in maize based cropping systems. In general, combined application of inorganic fertilizers with different sources of organic manures in different proportions has significant role to boost crop productivity, improve nutrient uptake by plants and maintain soil nutrient status in maize based cropping systems.
International Journal of Chemical Studies, 2017
To get more yield farmers tend to use excessive chemical fertilizers, while current energy crisis prevailing higher prices and lack of proper supply system of fertilizers and deterioration of soil health calls for more efficient nutrient management using conjunctive use of organic manure, inorganic fertilizers and biofertilizer to sustain yield levels and agro-eco-system. Therefore, a thrice replicated 2 year field trial was conducted during 2010 and 2011 by using F test. The results revealed that combination of 100% NPK + 5 t FYM+ Azotobactor + PSB recoded higher mean growth attributes viz.,plant height (201.25 cm), dry weight/plant (267.25 g), LAI at 60 DAS (4.2), yield attributing component and yield viz., cob/plants (1.1), number of grain/cob (541.2) and test weight (245.05 g), grain yield (53.15 q/ha), quality parameters viz., protein content (8.38%) and protein yield (445.4kg/ha), total nutrients uptake and economics viz.,net return/ha (Rs 36073.5), B:C ratio (2.86), productio...
Review Article INTEGRATED NUTRIENT MANAGEMENT-A NEED OF HOUR FOR SUSTAINABLE MAIZE YIELDS
International Journal of Agriculture Sciences, 2022
The integrated nutrient management (INM) focuses towards the maintenance and suitably adjusting the soil fertility besides providing the desirable plant nutrients for their growth and development so to have a sustained and regular yield without affecting the fertility and health of soil. It also plays an important role to cut down the requirement of the chemical fertilizers thereby helping to protect from the environmental pollution. For the maintenance of soil productivity and fertility the application of balanced dose of nutrients is an essential requirement which can be easily fulfilled with the application of inorganic fertilizers in combination with the organic manure that helps to reduce the dependency over inorganic fertilizers besides maintaining the desirable yield. The integrated nutrient management practices not only help to maintain the soil fertility but also helps to provide food security and enhancing the yield of the different crops hence provides a beneficial effect towards the growth and development of the agriculture sector. So, keeping in view the above facts an attempt has been made to review the importance of integrated nutrient management for improving the yield of maize crop. Keywords: Integrated nutrient management, Maize, Vermicompost, Farm yard manure and fertilizers
Pakistan Journal of Botany
The application of organic matter is an important element for preserving long-term soil fertility because it is the reservoir of metabolic energy, which drives soil biological processes involved in nutrient availability. Two years field experiments were conducted for the assessment of the interactive effect of biochar with synthetic fertilizer and farmyard manure. Biochar application at the rate of 25 t ha-1 increased spikes m-2 by 6.64%, grains spike-1 by 5.6%, thousand grain weight by 3.73, grain yield by 9.96%, biological yield by 15.36%, phosphorus use efficiency by 29.03% and grain phosphorus uptake by 19.67% in comparison with no biochar treated plots. Likewise, biochar application significantly increased soil carbon(C), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) by 54.02, 61.39 and 18.41%, respectively. Similarly, farmyard manure at the rate of 10 t ha-1 resulted in significantly higher yield components, grain yield, soil C, P and K than 5 t ha-1 . Likewise, mineral nitrogen applicatio...