Performance of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea Linn) under nitrogen fixing and phosphorus solubilizing microbial inoculants with different levels of cobalt in alluvial soils of eastern India

Manisha Basu¹* and P. B. S. Bhadoria¹

¹Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,Kharagpur-721 302, West Bengal, India
*Corresponding author: 1Department of Agricultural and Food Engineering,Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur-721 302, West Bengal, India;e-mail: basu.manisha@gmail.com; tel.: +919732654642

Abstract:

A field experiment was conducted for three years to evaluate the performance of groundnut under alluvial soil of eastern India with different types of inoculants such as Rhizobium and phosphobacterium inoculants, no inoculant, and different levels of cobalt ( 0.21 and 0.42 kg ha-1). Results indicated that Rhizobium inoculant promoted higher yield and nutrient uptake as compared to phosphobacterium. Kernel yield, averaged across three levels of cobalt, was recorded to be highest for Rhizobium inoculant, which was 16.50% and 10.72% higher over no inoculant and phosphobacterium inoculant respectively. Cobalt at the rate 0.21 kg ha-1 proved to be better as compared with other doses of cobalt and resulted in 10% higher kernel yield over no cobalt application. Among different treatment combinations, integrated application of Rhizobium + cobalt at the rate 0.21 kg ha-1 resulted in greater yield than that of other combinations, followed by phosphobacterium inoculant with the same dose of cobalt application. The yield and uptake of N, P and K by groundnut was significantly higher in the treatments receiving both inoculants and cobalt applied at 0.21 kg ha-1 than individual application of either inoculants or cobalt. The beneficial effect of application of microbial inoculants and cobalt was also reflected on the soil fertility status.

Key words:

Metal content in soil fertilized with brown coal fly ash

M. Gibczyńska¹, E. Meller², S. Stankowski³ and Cz. Wołoszyk⁴

¹ General Chemistry Department, University of Agriculture, 71 434 Szczecin,ul Słowackiego 17, Poland; e-mail: margi@px.pl
² Department of Soil Science, University of Agriculture, 71 434 Szczecin, ul Słowackiego 17,Poland; e-mail: Edward.Meller@agro.ar.szczecin.pl
³ Soil, Plant Cultivation and Biometry Department, University of Agriculture, 71 434 Szczecin,ul Słowackiego 17, Poland; e-mail: mail sstankowski@hoga.pl
⁴ Department of Environmental Chemistry, University of Agriculture, 71 434 Szczecin,ul Słowackiego 17, Poland; e-mail: woloszyk@agro.ar.szczecin.pl

Abstract:

The aim of the studies was evaluation of brown coal ash produced by Power Plant Group Pątnów-Adamów-Konin for agricultural purposes. The subject matter was the estimation of the influence of fly ash applied to light soil on the metal content of soils (aluminium, iron, manganese, copper, nickel and cobalt). The field experiment was conducted on light soil at the area of the Agricultural Experimental Station in Lipnik, Poland. The experiment was set up by means of randomized complete blocks in 4 replications. The study consisted of testing 7 variants (controlburned lime (CaO) dolomite lime CaCO3⋅MgCO3, ash from 1st electrofilterzone, from 2nd electrofilter zone, from 3rd electrofilter zone and mixture of ashes from three electrofilter zones). Lime fertilizers and ashes were applied in a dose corresponding to 1.0 hydrolytic soil acidity expressed in cmol H+ kg-1 of soil. Brown coal fly ash produced by Power Plants ZE PAK S.A., used as soil fertilizer, did not contribute to changes of content of the following metals: iron, zinc, copper, nickel, lead and cobalt in the tested soil. Soil-incorporated brown coal fly ash significantly increased the content of manganese. However, the obtained results did not exceed the allowable standard. In the soil of all fertilizer variants, where brown coal ash was applied, the content of mobile aluminium diminished. When brown coal ash produced by Power Plants ZE PAK S.A. was applied in the experiment, soil reaction changed from acid to neutral and its hydrolytic acidity decreased by ca 50%.

Key words:

aluminium, brown coal ash, cobalt, cupper, iron, lead, manganese, nickel, soil, zinc