Impact Fly Ash on Nutrient Status of Wetland Rice Cultivation
N. Maragatham
Agro Climate Research Centre, AC & RI, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India.
C. Pradipa *
SRF, Directorate of Crop Management, TNAU, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.
V. Geethalakshmi
Directorate of Crop Management, TNAU, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.
M. Maheswari
Department of Environmental Science, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The phrase, “Rice is life” aptly describes the importance of rice in food as well in nutritional security, particularly in Asian countries. Soil nutrient management in case of rice cultivation mainly focus on the major nutrient application but rice plants require high quantity of silicate and micro nutrient but the cost is not affordable. Hence, Coal combustion fly ash has a high available Si content, alkaline pH as well as micronutrient was selected as a potential source in this study and the field experiment was conducted. Abundant supply of micronutrients like Zn, Fe, Cu and Mn along with P and K was recorded in the soil samples of plot treated with fly ash when compared with the plots with NPK alone. The availability of these nutrients has resulted in increased yield. Hence this would be scaled as an economically viable solution for hidden hunger in the areas in and around thermal power plants.
Keywords: Rice, fly ash, micro nutrients, major nutrients