Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

EFFECT OF FLY ASH AND PHOSPHOGYPSUM AMENDMENTS ON PHYSICO-CHEMICAL PROPERTIES AND ENZYME ACTIVITIES

Raj Kumar Meena, Ramawatar Meena and Balu Ram

Abstract

The experiment was conducted to know the effect of Fly ash, Phospho-gypsum and chemical fertilizers on physico-chemical properties and enzyme activitiesin Inceptisol of Varanasi district (U.P.) during the year 2014-15 at the Agriculture Research Farm, Institute of Agriculture Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (India). The influence of fly ash (FA) and Phosphogypsum (PG) with fertilizers applied in soil improved the soil physical viz; bulk density and water holding capacity, chemical viz; pH, EC and CEC and enzyme activities. Both EC and CEC values varied significantly among various treatments.The results showed that treatment T15 in which 15 t FA ha-1 and 2 t PG ha-1 with 75% Recommended dose of fertilizers was applied in which maximum activity of urease (212.69 μg urea hydrolysed gram-1 soil hour-1) dehydrogenase activity (47.96 μg TPF g-1 day-1) and alkaline phosphatase (109.36 μg pNP g-1 h-1) were founded. Bulk density of soil decreased by the application of fly ash and phosphogypsum and higher WHC (42.80%) was recorded with treatment 15 t FA ha-1 and 2 t PG ha-1 with 75% RDF.