Vol. 7 (1) : January-February 2016 issue
Green Farming Vol. 7 (1) : 63-68 ; January-February, 2016
Effect of sewage waters on production and quality of various forage crops under different nitrogen levels
B. SRINIVASa1*, M. SHANTIb2 and T. SATISH KUMARa3
aCentral Research Institute for Dry land Agriculture, Santhoshnagar, Hyderabad - 500 059, bAICRP on Forage Crops, Agric. Research Institute, Rajendranagar ,Hyderabad - 500 030 (Andhra Pradesh), cDeptt. of Soil Sci. & Agricultural Chemistry, Acharya N.G.Ranga Agricultual University, Hyderabad - 500 030
Designation : 1SRF *(bsrinu69@gmail.com), 2Scientist, < sup>3Res. Associate
Subject : Forage, Fodder Crops and Grasslands
Paper No. : P-3591
Total Pages : 6
Received : 13 April 2015
Revised accepted : 28 December 2015
First Page
Citation :
B. SRINIVAS, M. SHANTI and T. SATISH KUMAR. 2016. Effect of sewage waters on production and quality of various forage crops under different nitrogen levels. Green Farming Vol. 7 (1) : 63-68 ; January-February, 2016
ABSTRACT
An experiment was laid out at Live stock Research station, Rajendranagar and four different perennial fodder crops viz., bajra-napier hybrid (APBN-1), guinea grass (CO-GG-3), para grass (local collection) and lucerne (CO-1) were grown. Sewage water of Budwel village was used for crop production. Five variable doses of recommended NPK i.e., 0 NPK, 25% of recommended NPK-N1, 50% recommended NPK-N2, 75% recommended NPK-N3 100% recommended NPK-N4 were imposed. The crops viz., para APBN-1, guinea, and lucerne produced green fodder yields of 149.4, 99.53, 100.4 and 45.4 tha-1,respectively. Nevertheless the effect of sewage irrigation was not observed in quality parameters. Among micronutrients the total uptake values followed the order Fe (1349.2 g ha-1) >Mn (505.4 g ha-1) > Cu (78.3 g ha-1) Zn (20.87 g ha-1) while the uptake of heavy metals followed order Cr (77.29 g ha-1) >Pb (46.45 g ha-1) > Ni (20.45 g ha-1) > Cd (12.96 g ha-1) = Co (12.66 g ha-1). Guinea grass had high affinity towards accumulation of chromium, para grass accumulated comparatively higher doses of cobalt, copper and manganese; lucerne accumulated highest concentration of Ni and Fe while Cd and Pb accumulation was highest in APBN-1. Though fortunately most of these metal concentrations did not cross the toxic limits, the Ni concentration in lucerne in the fourth cut was slightly above toxic limit of > 2 mg kg-1. The forages grown under Budwel sewage waters do not pose any immediate problem but eventually may lead to heavy metal accumulation up to toxic concentration in crops if irrigated for a few years.
Key words :
Forage crops, Metal concentration, Micronutrents uptake, Nitrogen levels, Sewage water, Yield & quality.