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Research Article
Department of Environmental Science, Yuvaraja's College, University of Mysore, Mysore 570005, Karnataka, India.
The effect of wastewater irrigation on plant growth and yield of tomato, Napier grass and
sugarcane crops was compared with that of ground water irrigation. Treatments included
untreated wastewater (UWW) treated wastewater (TWW) and ground water (GW) as control. The
results obtained, plant height, number of fruits/plant, dry biomass g/plant and number of
branches/plant of tomato (78.46 cm, 45.88, 15.49 and 11.41) and (75.13 cm, 41.48, 14.42 and
10.28) were significantly higher in the UWW and TWW compared to GW. The UWW and TWW
irrigated Napier grass gave the highest growth and yield, compared to that of GW irrigation.
Plant height, number of leaves/plant, leaf length, leaf width and number of tiller were 188.46 cm,
83.62, 93.62 cm, 2.52 and 13.2 in UWW and 182.68 cm, 69.75, 88.67cm, 2.29 and 10.39 in TWW
and these are significantly higher as compared to that of GW irrigation. Wastewater irrigation of
sugarcane increased cane length, number of nodes/cane, number of leaves, cane diameter and
cane weight significantly as compared to control GW are 191.86 cm, 22.48, 39.3 and 2.30 cm in
UWW and 149.4 cm, 20.54, 27.53 and 2.22 cm in TWW and compared to that of GW irrigation.
Keywords: Wastewater, groundwater, nutrient, heavy metal, cation exchange capacity, soil bulk density.
INTRODUCTION
The term wastewater agriculture refers to crop production
under wastewater irrigation. This practice is widely seen
in many cities of developing countries where urban
wastewater becomes the irrigation source for farmers in
urban and semi-urban areas (Raschid-Sally and
Jayakody, 2008). Wastewater use for agriculture is an
important management strategy in areas with limited
freshwater resources, yielding potential economic and
environmental benefits. The practice has manifold
benefits in the form of water conservation, nutrient
recycling and prevention of surface and ground water
pollution (Farahat and Linderholm, 2015). Irrigation of
olive trees with treated wastewaters in arid and semi-arid
regions is becoming a necessary alternative to
addressing issues of water shortages. The irrigation
requires a careful monitoring of soil and plants for a
range of parameters including salts, nutrients, microelements, heavy metals, toxic pollutants (Petousi et al.,
2015). In agricultural soils, the presence of metals is of
increasing concern because they have the potential to
get accumulated in less soluble forms, get transferred
into soil solution, and subsequently deteriorate the
groundwater and crop quality (Kelepertzis, 2014).
Growth and yield of tomato, Napier grass and sugarcane crops as influenced by wastewater irrigation in Mysore, Karnataka, India
Growth and yield of tomato, Napier grass and sugarcane crops as influenced by wastewater irrigation in Mysore, Karnataka, India
070
Table 1. Analyzed parameters for soil physical properties and methods were used for study of soil
Parameter
Soil Texture %
Soil Color
Determination of Cation Exchange
Capacity (CEC) Meq/100g
Measurement of bulk density (Pb) of soil
g/cc
Calculation of porosity
Test method
Mechanical analysis of soil by sieve method
Munsell Soil Color Charts, 1954 edition
Determination of CEC by Ammonium Acetate method
Determined using a clod by mercury displacement
method (Blake, 1985)
Calculation
Growth and yield of tomato, Napier grass and sugarcane crops as influenced by wastewater irrigation in Mysore, Karnataka, India
Alghobar et al.
071
Parameter
pH
EC S/cm
DO mg/l
COD mg/l
BOD mg/l
TDS mg/l
Ca mg/l
Mg mg/l
Na mg/l
K mg/l
CO3 mg/l
HCO3 mg/l
Cl mg/l
TN mg/l
TP mg/l
SO4 mg/l
Fe mg/l
Mn mg/l
Cu mg/l
Zn mg/l
Cd mg/l
Ni mg/l
Pb mg/l
Co mg/l
Cr mg/l
UWW
7.50
1032
Nil
964
650
560
43.37
27.01
48
24
Nil
296
93
78.4
4.55
24
2.93
0.157
<0.05
0.133
0.047
0.040
0.053
0.055
0.032
TWW
8.13
1225
2.3
145
30
624
62.64
28.89
60
20
Nil
392
115
61.6
2.40
20
2.48
0.041
<0.05
0.278
0.047
0.036
0.053
0.054
0.031
GW
8.30
1099
6.9
16
2
696
56.22
68.50
56
20
40
544
17
0.56
0.053
52
0.075
0.043
<0.05
0.363
0.047
0.034
0.051
0.054
0.032
Statistical analysis
Growth and yield of tomato, Napier grass and sugarcane crops as influenced by wastewater irrigation in Mysore, Karnataka, India
072
Table 3. Physical parameters of soil samples of tomato, Napier grass and sugarcane
Crops
Treatment
Tomato
Napier
grass
Sugarcane
UWW
Particle
distribution, %
Sand
Silt
77.91
11.15
Size
Clay
10.94
TWW
84.03
9.89
6.08
GW
UWW
88.46
76.48
10.63
19.63
0.91
3.89
TWW
90.00
6.61
2.71
GW
UWW
89.34
87.01
7.29
6
3.37
6.99
TWW
GW
88.61
89.97
10.78
7.91
0.61
2.13
Texture
class
Colour
Bulk density
(g/cm)
Calculation
porosity %
Sandy
Loam
Loamy
sand
Sandy
Loamy
Sand
Sandy
Light
grey
Light
grey
Red
Black
1.57
41
16.27
1.67
37
13.76
1.54
1.49
42
44
5.12
12.49
Light
grey
Red
grey
1.58
40
11.33
1.64
1.65
38
38
8.22
13.93
grey
Red
1.57
1.55
41
42
10.51
6.53
Sandy
Loamy
sand
Sandy
Sandy
of
CEC
Meq/100g
Growth and yield of tomato, Napier grass and sugarcane crops as influenced by wastewater irrigation in Mysore, Karnataka, India
Alghobar et al.
073
Figure 1. Plant height, number of fruits/plant and dry biomass g/plant of tomato irrigated
with untreated, treated wastewater and groundwater .
Figure 2. Fruit mean weight and number of branches/plant of tomato irrigated with untreated,
treated wastewater and groundwater.
Growth and yield of tomato, Napier grass and sugarcane crops as influenced by wastewater irrigation in Mysore, Karnataka, India
074
Figure 3. Plant height, Number of leaves/plant and Leaf length of Napier grass irrigated with
untreated, treated wastewater and groundwater.
Figure 4. Leaf width, Number of tiller/plant and dry weight of Napier grass irrigated with untreated,
treated wastewater and groundwater.
Growth and yield of tomato, Napier grass and sugarcane crops as influenced by wastewater irrigation in Mysore, Karnataka, India
Alghobar et al.
075
Figure 5. Cane length, Number of nodes/cane and Number of leaves of sugarcane irrigated with
untreated, treated wastewater and groundwater
Growth and yield of tomato, Napier grass and sugarcane crops as influenced by wastewater irrigation in Mysore, Karnataka, India
076
Figure 6. Cane diameter and cane weight of sugarcane irrigated with untreated, treated wastewater
and groundwater.
CONCLUSION
The results of this study showed the effects of irrigation
with wastewater on growth and yield of tomato, Napier
grass and sugarcane crops as compared to control grown
crops. From the above mentioned results, it can be seen
that, the effect of wastewater irrigation on growth and
yield parameters of tomato, it is observed that the plant
height, number of fruits/plant and dry biomass g/plant this
may be due to nutrient enrichment in wastewater
irrigation. Mean fruit weight of tomato was not
significantly influenced by wastewater irrigation. While
number of branches/plant increased significantly with
wastewater irrigation. From growth and yield parameters
of Napier grass it revealed that UWW and TWW irrigation
of Napier grass gave higher growth and yield, compared
to groundwater irrigation. In Napier grass plant height,
number of leaves/plant, leaf length, leaf width, number of
tillers/plant and dry weight, were significantly higher with
UWW and TWW irrigation as compared to that of
groundwater. Results from sugarcane crops showed that
UWW and TWW irrigated sugarcane gave higher growth
Growth and yield of tomato, Napier grass and sugarcane crops as influenced by wastewater irrigation in Mysore, Karnataka, India
Alghobar et al.
077
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Growth and yield of tomato, Napier grass and sugarcane crops as influenced by wastewater irrigation in Mysore, Karnataka, India
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Growth and yield of tomato, Napier grass and sugarcane crops as influenced by wastewater irrigation in Mysore, Karnataka, India
Alghobar et al.
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Growth and yield of tomato, Napier grass and sugarcane crops as influenced by wastewater irrigation in Mysore, Karnataka, India